How to Open a Terminal in Ubuntu (Desktop, Server and VPS)

Applies to: Ubuntu Desktop 26.04 LTS (Ptyxis 50.1) and 24.04 LTS (GNOME Terminal 3.52), Ubuntu Server, and Ubuntu on Windows through WSL

On Ubuntu Desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+T. A terminal window opens straight away. On Ubuntu Server there is no desktop: you are already at a terminal after you log in, and most people reach it over SSH.

Open a terminal on Ubuntu Desktop

1. Keyboard shortcut: press Ctrl+Alt+T. This is the default "Launch terminal" shortcut in the GNOME settings that ship with both Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 (we checked the default value in the settings schema of each release).
2. Search: press the Super key (the Windows key), type terminal and press Enter. Typing shell, cmd or console finds it too.
3. From a folder: in the Files app, right-click an empty area inside a folder and choose Open in Terminal. The terminal starts in that folder, so you don’t have to cd into it.

The app is called Terminal in both releases, but it is a different program underneath. Ubuntu 26.04 uses Ptyxis; Ubuntu 24.04 uses GNOME Terminal. Both run the same Bash shell, so every command works the same way.

Shortcuts inside the terminal

• Ctrl+Shift+C copies and Ctrl+Shift+V pastes. Plain Ctrl+C does not copy: it stops the command that is running.
• Ctrl+Shift+T opens a new tab, Ctrl+Shift+N a new window and Ctrl+Shift+W closes the tab.

These are the defaults in both Ptyxis and GNOME Terminal. You can change them in the app’s preferences.

Your first commands

The prompt shows your user name, the computer name and the current folder, for example asha@laptop:~$. The ~ means your home folder. On a fresh Ubuntu 26.04 system we got:

asha@laptop:~$ whoami
asha
asha@laptop:~$ pwd
/home/asha
asha@laptop:~$ bash --version | head -1
GNU bash, version 5.3.9(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

To install updates, run sudo apt update followed by sudo apt upgrade. sudo asks for your own password, not root’s. On Ubuntu 26.04 the prompt is [sudo: authenticate] Password: and shows an asterisk for each character you type. On Ubuntu 24.04 it is [sudo] password for asha: and nothing appears while you type. Both are normal.

On Ubuntu Server

Ubuntu Server has no graphical desktop. When you log in at the console, you get a shell prompt at once, so there is nothing to open. In practice you rarely sit at the server itself; you connect from your own computer with SSH:

ssh asha@203.0.113.10

Windows 10 and 11 include the ssh command in PowerShell. If you prefer a graphical client, see how to connect with PuTTY.

On a Ucartz VPS or dedicated server

1. Use SSH as shown above, with the IP address and root password from your welcome email. Our guide on connecting to your VPS with SSH also covers the first security steps.
2. If SSH does not respond (for example after a firewall mistake), open the VNC console from the client area. It shows the server’s own screen and works even when the network settings are broken: access your VPS through VNC in Virtualizor.
3. On an unmanaged dedicated server, the IPMI KVM console gives you the same kind of access to the physical machine.

An Ubuntu terminal on Windows (WSL)

If you work on Windows and only want an Ubuntu command line, you don’t need a separate computer. According to Microsoft, on Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later, or Windows 11:

1. Right-click PowerShell and choose Run as administrator.
2. Run wsl --install. This enables the Windows Subsystem for Linux and installs Ubuntu, which is the default distribution.
3. Restart the computer, then open Ubuntu from the Start menu and create your Linux user name and password.

To see other distributions, run wsl --list --online and install one with wsl --install -d <DistroName>.

Next steps: common SSH and shell commands and the A to Z index of Bash commands. If you want a full desktop on a remote server instead of a terminal, see xrdp on Ubuntu.

Official documentation: Microsoft: install WSL.