Debian 12 by default comes with Gnome desktop environment installed. And if you try to launch gnome-terminal it launches perfectly because gnome terminal is the default terminal of Gnome Desktop environment.
When you are using a different Desktop environment, other than Gnome, for example using XFCE. If you try to launch gnome-terminal, you will get the error
bash: gnome-terminal: command not found
This is normal, because you are trying to launch something that is not installed on your system. Xfce's default terminal is xfce4-panel and not gnome-terminal, so to fix this issue you need to install gnome terminal on your system.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to fix the issue "Gnome terminal command not found"
Step 1 - Update your system
Before installing gnome terminal, run the command below to make sure that your system is updated.
sudo apt update -y
Step 2 - Install Gnome Terminal
If you are not using Gnome as desktop environment, but you still want to use gnome terminal on your system, you can do so by installing gnome terminal.
Installing gnome terminal is simple, all you have to do is run the command below
sudo apt install gnome-terminal -y
Step 3 - Launch Gnome Terminal
After installing Gnome terminal, you can proceed to launch it. Launch gnome terminal by running the command below on your terminal
gnome-terminal
By default gnome terminal is set to appear only on Gnome and Unity. To make it appear on the applications menu on XFCE or other desktop environments, you need to remove OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity; from the .desktop file of gnome terminal.
This file is located on /usr/share/applications/
To do this, simply open org.gnome.Terminal.desktop with a text editor , and remove this line OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
Once you remove it, save changes.
Now you should be able to find Gnome terminal on Applications Menu, under System category.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned that the error "Gnome terminal command not found" happens when you try to launch gnome terminal on a system that doesn't have gnome terminal installed. This happens mostly when you are using a different desktop environment than Gnome.
