For An Improved GNU Screen Tool Try Byobu

Posted on: October 11th, 2011 by No Comments

If you feel that the default GNU screen tool is lacking in features or style you should try Byobu today. Byobu offers an attractive color scheme and a useful integrated system monitor.

Screen With Simplicity

Byobu will allow you to open multiple virtual shells in a single terminal window, and flip through them at will. This tool also makes screen a little more user-friendly. You can even set a message of the day which will be displayed when you login.

Byobu Screenshot

Installing Byobu

Many versions of Linux come with Byobu already installed, but you can install this tool on your machine using the following commands in your terminal.

$ sudo apt-get install byobu

Byobu Keybindings

Here you can find several useful keybinding for the Byobu screen tool.

New Window

Use this to create a new window.

F2

Previous Window

This will move to the previous window.

F3

Next Window

Will Move to the next window.

F4

Reload Byobu

This will reload the Byobu profile.

F5

Detach

Use this to detach from the current session.

F6

Scrollback Mode

Use the shortcut below to toggle scrollback mode.

F7

Re-title Window

This will allow you to re-title an open window.

F8

Configure Byobu

Will open the configuration screen.

F9

Lock Termnal

Use this to lock the current terminal.

F12

Re-Attach Session

This will re-attach a detached session.

$ screen -r

Configuring Byobu

Here are some of the options available in the Byobu configuration menu.

Byobu Background Color

The default Byobu background color can be changed.

Byobu Foreground Color

The default Byobu foreground color can be changed.

Toggle Status Notifications

You can toggle the display of different status notifications on or off.

Change Keybinding Set

You can change the default keybindings from the F-keys to the default screen keybindings.

Change Escape Sequence

You can change the key sequence used to close Byobu.

Create New Windows

Here you can set a default title for new windows, or toggle items to be displayed when new windows are opened.

Manage Default Windows

Here you can toggle a few commands used for window management.

Launch At Login

Use this option to have Byobu start when you login to your system.

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