Update: The method still works on KDE SC 4.4

Konsole is the X terminal emulator of KDE. I find having the terminal out of my way, but always open and easy to reach out to, very convenient. It also looks cool. 😉 With KDE SC 4.3 you can easily achieve this with a few clicks without the need of any additional software.

Here is how to do it:

1> Open up a Konsole window.

2> Move the window at the position on the Desktop where you want it to appear. I like having it at the top left corner of my screen.

3> Right click on the Konsole window and deselect “Show menu bar”

4> Right click again on the window and click “Edit Current Profile”

In the Tabs Tab select “Show Tab Bar when needed” under Tab Bar Display

select “Show Tab Bar when needed” under Tab Bar Display In the Appearance Tab select the colors of your choice and then hit “Edit” on the right. Move the “background transparency” bar to 100%. You can also create a new custom scheme and set your preferred fonts here.

select the colors of your choice and then hit “Edit” on the right. Move the “background transparency” bar to 100%. You can also create a new custom scheme and set your preferred fonts here. In the Scrolling Tab under Scroll Bar options, click on Hidden.

under Scroll Bar options, click on Hidden. In the Advanced Tab you can change the settings for the cursor to match your needs.

you can change the settings for the cursor to match your needs. Hit OK when you are done.

5> Right click on the Konsole’s window title bar and select Advanced > Special Application settings

a) Go to the Geometry Tab

Click Position and Force. The numbers shown here are the coordinates of the window. If you placed the Konsole window at step 2 correctly, then you don’t need to change anything here. For top left corner “0,0” should be entered.

Click on Desktop and Force. Then choose on which desktops you would like to embed the terminal to. All Desktops selected for me here.

b) Go to the Preferences Tab and enable and force these options:

Keep below

No border

Skip taskbar (for Konsole not to be shown on your taskbar)

Skip pager (for Konsole not to show an icon in the Pager widget)

c) Hit OK when your done.

6> We are almost done here, we now only need to make Konsole automatically load when logging in.

Open System Settings

Click on the Advanced Tab and select Autostart .

and select . Click on Add Program on the right and locate Konsole (it’s under System) or just type “konsole” in the space there and hit Enter.

Hit OK (probably twice) and close the System Settings window.

7> We are done! You can restart your PC to check if all went as planned.

Voila the result on my Desktop:

Keep in mind:

– If you want to open a new Konsole window, it will maintain the above settings.

– Alt+F3 will bring up the menu for right clicking on the title bar of the Konsole’s window.

– Right clicking on the Desktop area where the Konsole lies will not present the Desktop menu but the menu for right clicking in the terminal.

– An option to hide the Konsole Window when hitting Alt+Tab doesn’t seem to exist. If you have a workaround on this do tell.

– Whats more, the Konsole will disappear when “Show desktop” is attempted.

– If you have “restore session” enabled in System Settings>Advanced Tab>Session manager, you need to exclude the konsole from restoring, or it will (sometimes) run two instances of the Konsole when you restart KDE. (thnx to truzicic for this tip!)