SysTerm

A native GTK + VTE tiling terminal for Debian-based systems, in the spirit of Terminator: split the window into as many shell panes as you like, arrange them in tabs, and broadcast your typing to every pane at once. Built on the same battle-tested VTE widget GNOME Terminal and Terminator use, so the terminal core (PTY, escape sequences, rendering, URLs, scrollback) is solid — SysTerm adds the tiling, tabs, broadcast, and config.

Status: v0.1 (MVP) — usable daily. Splits, tabs, broadcast, per-pane font zoom, pane zoom, configurable keys and profile all work. See the roadmap.

Install (Debian / Ubuntu)

SysTerm's GTK/VTE bindings are system packages, not pip wheels:

sudo apt install python3 python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-vte-2.91

Then either run it in place:

git clone <your-fork-url> systerm && cd systerm
python3 -m systerm

or install the systerm command with pipx (it manages the virtualenv for you; --system-site-packages lets that venv import the system GTK/VTE bindings):

sudo apt install pipx
pipx install --system-site-packages .
# add it to your application menu (desktop entry + icons):
install -Dm644 data/systerm.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/systerm.desktop
cp -r data/icons/hicolor ~/.local/share/icons/
# refresh the caches so the launcher shows it immediately (no re-login):
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications 2>/dev/null || true
gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor 2>/dev/null || true

Icon not showing? Two common causes on servers/minimal desktops:

1. Menu cache — re-run the two cache commands above, then log out and back in (or killall -HUP gnome-shell on X11). New entries rarely appear live.
2. No SVG loader — GTK renders themed icons via gdk-pixbuf; without librsvg2-common an SVG icon silently fails. SysTerm ships PNG icons (16–256px) as well as the SVG for exactly this reason, so the raster icon resolves even with no SVG loader. Check with gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders | grep -qi svg if you want the scalable one too.

Once the desktop entry is installed, SysTerm is a normal standalone app — launch it from your Activities / application menu, pin it to the dock, or bind systerm to a keyboard shortcut in your desktop settings. You never need to start it from another terminal; running python3 -m systerm from a shell is just the from-source convenience.

Not pip install --user . — Debian 12+/Python 3.11+ mark the system interpreter externally managed (PEP 668), so it refuses with error: externally-managed-environment. Use pipx (above) or a python3 -m venv --system-site-packages <dir> you install into. As a last resort you can force the old behaviour with pip install --user --break-system-packages .. Running in place with python3 -m systerm needs no install at all — there are no pip dependencies.

Build a Debian package (recommended for a system install)

A debian/ directory ships in the repo, so you can build a proper .deb. This is the cleanest install: it pulls the GTK/VTE dependencies automatically and registers the desktop entry and icon for you (cache refresh included).

sudo apt install build-essential debhelper dh-python pybuild-plugin-pyproject
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b        # produces ../systerm_0.1.0_all.deb
sudo apt install ../systerm_0.1.0_all.deb

Now systerm is on PATH, appears in your application menu with its icon, and uninstalls cleanly with sudo apt remove systerm.

Usage

Launch systerm (or python3 -m systerm). You start with one shell pane. Split it, open tabs, and work.

Right-click any pane for the context menu — Split Horizontally / Vertically, Open Tab / Window, Copy / Paste, Zoom, Broadcast, and Close — the same actions as the keyboard shortcuts below, each shown with its shortcut.

Default keybindings

Action	Shortcut
Split horizontal (top/bottom)	Ctrl+Shift+O
Split vertical (side by side)	Ctrl+Shift+E
New tab	Ctrl+Shift+T
New window	Ctrl+Shift+N
Close pane	Ctrl+Shift+W
Close tab	Ctrl+Shift+Q
Copy / Paste	Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+V
Next / previous tab	Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp
Cycle pane focus	Ctrl+Shift+→ / Ctrl+Shift+←
Zoom pane to fill tab (toggle)	Ctrl+Shift+X
Broadcast input to all panes (toggle)	Ctrl+Shift+B
Font bigger / smaller / reset	Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0

Broadcast: press Ctrl+Shift+B and the window gets an amber frame — now every keystroke goes to all panes in the window (run the same command across a row of ssh sessions). Press again to disarm. The amber border is the safety cue.

Configuration

On first run SysTerm writes a commented default to ~/.config/systerm/config.ini. Edit the profile (font, colours, scrollback, cursor) and rebind any key under [keys] using GTK accelerator syntax (<Primary> = Ctrl). Restart to apply.

[profile]
font = Monospace 12
background = #141414
foreground = #d0d0d0
scrollback_lines = 20000

[keys]
toggle-broadcast = <Primary><Shift>a

Roadmap

• Directional focus (Alt+Arrows) and drag-to-resize handles (VTE gives us the panes; geometry-aware navigation is next).
• Saved layouts / named profiles.
• Preferences UI (config is file-only for now).
• Session groups: broadcast to a subset of panes, not just all.
• Debian packaging (debian/ rules → a proper .deb for the distro default).
• Optional C+VTE port for a leaner single binary if we want it in the base image.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.