Customising your Linux Terminal (Starship + Zsh)

If you spend time in the Linux terminal, customization is not about looks alone. It’s about clarity, speed, and comfort. A clean terminal helps you read commands faster, notice errors instantly, and stay focused.

This guide is practical and minimal. No flashy animations. Just Zsh, Starship, and good colors.

Step 1: Installing the Terminal & Required tools

sudo dnf install gnome-terminal

sudo dnf install unzip wget

Step 2: Setting up the Fonts
A good font is very important in terminal. In this article we’ll be using FiraCode

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
cd ~/.local/share/fonts/

 wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v3.1.1/FiraCode.zip -O FiraCode.zip

unzip FiraCode.zip -d ~/.local/share/fonts/FiraCode

Now, we will update the cache of the fonts

fc-cache -fv

Now, create a new profile in the terminal and then select that profile and apply the font in the preferences section

Step 3: Download the GNOME Theme

git clone https://github.com/catppuccin/gnome-terminal.git
cd gnome-terminal

./install.sh mocha

Open GNOME Terminal and set Catpuccin Mocha Profile

sudo dnf install zsh

Now, we will make zsh default by writing this command

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Logout → Login

sudo dnf install curl util-linux-user -y

mkdir -p ~/.zsh/{plugins,completions,themes}

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-completions ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-completions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Edit the .zshrcfile

nano ~/.zshrc

Add following lines:

# Enable Plugins

source ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
source ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
fpath+=~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-completions/src

source ~/.zshrc

Installing Starship

curl -sS https://starship.rs/install.sh | sh

Now add this into .zshrc file

eval "$(starship init zsh)"

starship preset catppuccin-powerline -o ~/.config/starship.toml