# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Specialised Support > Ubuntu Development Version >  transparent terminals not working.

## beelzebufo

hello all, I just switched back to ubuntu gnome.. not sure why I ever left, I forgot how much I loved gnome shell, anyway, now that I have installed ubuntu gnome 14.04, I can't seem to make my terminals transparent like I usually do.  I go into the profile settings > background > transparent background, and then I adjust, but it always stays opaque.. not sure what I did differently, I installed over mint on accident (didn't reformat as I should have) but everything else seems fine.. I didn't notice until after I got things set up the way I wanted so I don't really want to reinstall again.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, seems like a silly little detail, but I gotta have my transparent terminals, it just feels wrong if I can't see through them.

thanks
beelze

I also don't seem to have colors enabled (it used to be that folders, executables, etc) were different colors, now it's all black and white..

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## sffvba[e0rt

_Thread moved to Ubuntu +1._

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## 23dornot23d

I just tried it out to confirm that it is still working ......... although will try it out in a few sessions
this was in one that has nothing other than my docks in it ......

Short video ..... mine was upgraded too but not from mint ........  http://youtu.be/_oY02VXftKw

Make sure that you have the latest gnome-terminal

Then - edit - profiles - edit - backgrounds .......

__________________________________________________  __________ 

You are correct - something else happens in Gnome-Shell ............ it turns black - from whatever it was before when adjusting 
the slider ........... http://youtu.be/nB3d-HE_8JA

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## beelzebufo

thank you for the reply, unfortunately, that did not help.  I have the up to date gnome-terminal, and I can set the background to transparent, it just doesn't do anything, may be a bug, It slipped my mind that 14.04 is still in dev.

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## 23dornot23d

Yep - I just did another test in Gnome-shell - the first test was in one that only has the docks in it ..... 

You are correct - something else happens in Gnome-Shell ............ it  turns black - from whatever it was before when adjusting 
the slider ........... http://youtu.be/nB3d-HE_8JA

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## beelzebufo

ok, so it's not just me then, hmm, never submitted a bug report before, let's see how much they hate me by the time I am done lol.  Thanks again.

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## cariboo

I'm affected by this too, before creating your bug report, have a look here

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## QDR06VV9

For transparent terminal "sudo apt-get install terminator" Right click inside the terminal after launch select preferences, profiles, background. you can make the terminal transparent or insert a transparent .png see attach

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## cariboo

> For transparent terminal "sudo apt-get install terminator" Right click inside the terminal after launch select preferences, profiles, background. you can make the terminal transparent or insert a transparent .png see attach


That's not the point though, gnome-terminal transparency works the way it should when running Unity, but not when running gnome shell.

alexis is running unity, and redstone is running gnome shell.

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## QDR06VV9

> That's not the point though, gnome-terminal transparency works the way it should when running Unity, but not when running gnome shell.
> 
> alexis is running unity, and redstone is running gnome shell.


For the sake of argument Title reads tansparent terminals
Just another option to get it done.
I Too run gnome-shell.

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## cariboo

I guess the op should have specified gnome-terminal.  :Smile:

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## mc4man

I believe Gnome removed transparency in gnome-terminal quite some time ago

see-
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=698544

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## beelzebufo

the option is still there, it just doesn't make things transparent.

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## mc4man

> the option is still there, it just doesn't make things transparent.


I guess you didn't read thru bug report - small quote 



> I've spoken to Christian and he has filled me in on the background to this
> issue.
> 
> The ability to set background transparency was removed as a part of a much
> larger clean up of the gnome-terminal code base. This modernisation effort is
> much needed and it should be remembered that the terminal has an old and
> complicated code base. Background transparency was also known to cause a range
> of performance issues, including slowness and memory leaks.
> 
> ...

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## beelzebufo

I read it, but I thought it meant that the feature had been removed.  the first report stated that the background tab was gone, that was what I thought it meant.  If they removed the feature, I assumed (we all know what happens when you assume) that they had removed the ability to use said feature (the background tab or the option to make the terminal transparent.)  Anyway, it doesn't matter, if they want to remove transparent terminals, they still need to remove the transparent option and the slider from the terminal options.

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## cariboo

@beelzebufo, I think you may need to read the whole bug report, as it mentions in there that the Ubuntu devs included a work-a-round to get transparent terminals to work in Unity. With the shortage of manpower that Ubuntu Gnome is experiencing, it may be a while before they get around to fixing the problem in gnome-shell.

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## beelzebufo

I know for a fact that transparent terminials work on ubuntu gnome 13.10, and yes, I did read the bug report.

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## cariboo

> I know for a fact that transparent terminials work on ubuntu gnome 13.10, and yes, I did read the bug report.


So what is it that you want? This is Trusty 14.04 we are discussing here. What worked in the previous version, has no bearing on anything in this version.

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## beelzebufo

the bug report is from april of last year, 13.10 was october of last year, october is after april, your bug report has no bearing on this conversation.  This conversation is over.

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## cariboo

It seems we are missing something here. The bug report quoted is an upstream bug report. As you can see the Gnome developer is not going to fix the problem. The Ubuntu devs have come up with a work around, that makes transparent terminals work in Unity. It may be the the Ubuntu Gnome developer may not even be aware of the problem, so I'd suggest that you create a new bug report, so at least the developer is made aware of the problem.

If you aren't sure how to create a bug report, have a look at this wiki page.

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## mc4man

Probably good this 'conversation' is over, so final comment.
Of course the bug report is relevant, the date of really isn't, Ubuntu is quite some time behind Gnome.

As far as the option in an Ubuntu gnome-shell  session - 
It does work, just doesn't produce the results expected. Why?, personally don't care. If you do then you could - 
See what changed in Gs *&* 13.10 vs. Gs *&* 14.04
See how it works or doesn't on Fedora, try the current Fedora 20 live
File a launchpad bug

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