linux_quake_terminal

Quake-style scroll down terminal from top of desktop for Linux. This shellscript configures a terminal to "slide" down from the top of the desktop screen, slow enough to where you can see it scroll down like a "scroll" of paper being unfolded. Fans of Quake 2 will know what I'm talking about.

Why?

Why not?

Does it work with any terminal?

This should work with any terminal, yes. I was using alacritty for a while with this setup, but now I have it configured out of the box to be working with kitty.

What about window manager?

I have only tested this on awesomewm, but conceivably this should work with any window manager.

How does it work?

I have step-by-step instructions below for getting this setup exactly how I have setup on my machine (awesomewm+kitty), but overall this works by using common X11 tools (xprop, xdotool) combined with a simple bash script to toggle a terminal that starts at 1% height, and via for-loop, slowly (or quickly) increase the height of the terminal to the desired percentage (default: 30%).

Installation instructions

1. Place the quake-terminal.sh file in ~/.config/quake-terminal.sh.
2. chmod 755 ~/.config/quake-terminal.sh
3. Make changes to quake-terminal.sh you may want (such as terminal emulator change, speed the quake terminal opens, size of quake terminal, etc.)
4. Set a key-binding in your window manager's settings to run this shell script (probably want to bind it with ~ for moar of that Quake 2 nostalgia).

Example setup with awesomewm

1. I have bound my kitty-quake terminal to be ran when I hit my Mod + ~ key-binding (awesomewm users should know what I mean by Mod-key). That is found in my ~/.config/awesomewm/rc.lua:

[...]
-- Bind Quake-dropdown terminal to key                                      
    awful.key({ modkey }, "`", function() run_once({"/home/m/.config/quake_term.sh"}) end,
             {description = "Toggle dropdown terminal", group = "launcher"}),
[...]

2. Further down the rc.lua file, you will find generic rules that are applied to new clients in awesomewm. Add the following rule to make sure your kitty-quake is always set to floating:

awful.rules.rules = {
[...]
{ rule = { instance = "kitty_launcher" }, properties = { floating = true } },
[...]
}

This rule is specific to awesomewm (and im sure similar for other tiling WMs like i3 because if this rule is not specified, as soon as you launch your kitty-quake, it will become tiled and stuck on your desktop.

Caveats

• As briefly mentioned above, rather than setting kitty's class to XYZ, I set the classname to XYZ. The difference between the two are that in x11, you can set the WM_CLASS property, and the WM_NAME property. Typically, the name of a program will be the WM_CLASS property (in kitty's case, WM_CLASS = kitty by default, WM_NAME is unset by default). Most terminal emulators allow you to set both, and to not get in the way of the window manager or other utilities, I decided to use the WM_NAME / classname portion.

• Try to keep other windows further from the top of the screen than the bottom -- some terminals will notice there is more room on the bottom and start from there instead of the top of the screen.

Troubleshooting

I whipped this README.md up really fast. Honestly, this should be pretty straight- forward on getting it to work. But if you find any bugs, have any problems, or have questions, feel free to reach out to me at @DUK3NUK3M on Telegram or blackh4t@icloud.com.