Lios

Customizable Rust GTK/VTE terminal emulator scaffolded from the initial Xfce Terminal-style reference in ../KnottTerminalRef.

Current Scope

• GTK4 window with a VTE terminal widget.
• Spawns the user's $SHELL, with common Unix shell fallbacks.
• Optional -- COMMAND ... and --command "..." launch modes.
• Reference-aligned dark defaults: dark-pastels palette, dark backing layer, Monospace 12, block cursor, 1,000 lines of scrollback.
• Built-in themes: xfce, xterm, solarized-dark, solarized-light, dark-pastels, green-on-black, black-on-white, white-on-black.
• Background image support with ~ path expansion, image opacity, terminal background opacity, fixed color tint, or per-launch random accent tint.
• Renderer selection: auto, gl, vulkan, or cairo through GSK_RENDERER before GTK starts.
• Optional window decoration/topbar removal.
• Slim topbar with a collapsible in-window preferences drawer for common live theme/background changes.
• Right-click appearance submenus for background images, terminal glass, accent presets, random tint, and themes.
• Terminal-driven config commands for theming from a shell or script.
• Clipboard/context actions for copy, copy as HTML, paste, select all.
• Keyboard shortcuts for Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+Shift+V, Ctrl+Shift+A, Ctrl+Shift+N, Ctrl+Shift+Q, Ctrl+Shift+,, Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, and Ctrl+0.

System Dependencies

Install Rust plus GTK4/VTE development packages.

Debian/Ubuntu names:

sudo apt install pkg-config libgtk-4-dev libvte-2.91-gtk4-dev

Arch names:

sudo pacman -S rust pkgconf gtk4 vte4

Run

cargo run
cargo run -- --working-directory "$HOME"
cargo run -- -- htop
cargo run -- --command "ls -la"
cargo run -- --theme solarized-dark
cargo run -- --renderer gl
cargo run -- --background-image ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg --background-opacity 0.72 --random-overlay
cargo run -- --hide-titlebar
cargo run -- config init
cargo run -- config set theme solarized-dark
cargo run -- config set renderer gl
cargo run -- config set background.image ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg
cargo run -- config set topbar false

Configuration

Lios reads ~/.config/lios/config.toml by default when it exists. Use --config path/to/config.toml to load another file.

[window]
title = "Lios"
width = 960
height = 640
decorated = true # set false to remove the topbar/window decorations
renderer = "auto" # auto, gl, vulkan, cairo

[terminal]
font = "Monospace 12"
scrollback_lines = 1000

[theme]
name = "dark-pastels"
# Optional custom overrides:
# foreground = "#f8fafc"
# background = "#020617"
# cursor = "#a78bfa"
# palette = ["#000000", "#aa0000", "#00aa00", "#aa5500", "#0000aa", "#aa00aa", "#00aaaa", "#aaaaaa", "#555555", "#ff5555", "#55ff55", "#ffff55", "#5555ff", "#ff55ff", "#55ffff", "#ffffff"]

[background]
image = "/home/you/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg"
image_opacity = 0.70
terminal_opacity = 1.00
# overlay_color = "#7c3aed"
overlay_opacity = 0.00
random_overlay = false

CLI flags override the config file for one run.

The default topbar includes a Customize button when decorated = true. It opens a collapsible in-window drawer rather than a separate dialog. Ctrl+Shift+, toggles the same drawer, which is useful when the topbar is hidden. Ctrl+Shift+N opens another terminal window using the current live settings. Ctrl+Shift+Q closes the current window. The drawer can change renderer, theme, font, background image path, image opacity, terminal opacity, overlay color, overlay opacity, random overlay, and topbar visibility. The background row includes a Choose Image button with an image-file picker; chosen images apply immediately and lower terminal opacity if needed so the image is visible. Theme/background/font changes apply live; renderer changes are saved and apply on the next launch. Changes are written back to ~/.config/lios/config.toml when a config path is available.

Right-click inside the terminal for quick actions. New Window and Close Window manage terminal windows. Reset to Dark Default returns the current window to the plain dark reference-style look. The Background submenu changes/clears images, adjusts image brightness, or resets the whole background. Terminal Glass adjusts terminal transparency. Accent switches fixed accent presets (Violet, Cyan, Emerald, Amber, Rose), toggles random accent tint, and adjusts accent strength. The Theme submenu switches built-in terminal themes. These actions apply live and persist to the active config path when one is available.

Rust 1.88.0 can ICE while compiling glib with full dev debuginfo during package verification. Cargo.toml keeps dev debuginfo disabled for only glib as a scoped workaround. If cargo install still crashes while compiling GTK/glib dependencies with a rustc stack trace, retry with a larger compiler stack:

RUST_MIN_STACK=16777216 cargo install --path .

Terminal config commands:

lios config path
lios config sample
lios config init
lios config init --force
lios config show
lios config set renderer gl
lios config set theme solarized-dark
lios config set background_opacity 0.80
lios config set overlay_color '#7c3aed'
lios config set overlay_opacity 0.18
lios config set random_overlay true
lios config set topbar false

Useful keys include renderer, theme, font, background.image, background_opacity, background_image_opacity, overlay_color, overlay_opacity, random_overlay, and topbar.

Publish

The Cargo package is currently named lios and has crates.io metadata. The crates.io index currently reports lios = "0.1.0", so publish under this exact name only if you control that crate; otherwise rename the package before a real publish. Also decide whether to keep the current MIT OR Apache-2.0 license.

cargo publish --dry-run
cargo publish