How to make Arabic appear properly in linux terminal?

Question

In Linux Mint 13, when using the Arabic language, text is shown backwards.

I found a possible answer that says I should do:

sudo apt-get install libfribidi0 libfribidi-dev

then install bicon, and then put

Terminal=true
Exec=/usr/bin/bicon.bin

in /usr/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop.

After doing this, I restart my computer and enter terminal, but my language is still shown backwards, so then I type in bicon and it fix it.

How can I make terminal work properly without having to type bicon every time?

Answer 1

here is a hack I use to make it work. add the folowing to your .bashrc file.

# hack to launch bicon if not launched
if ! [[ "$(ps -p $(ps -p $(echo $$) -o ppid=) -o comm=)" =~ 'bicon'* ]]; then
  bicon.bin
fi

this should also work for new tab. strange behavior happens when you try to open bash inside bash, don't do that.

Answer 2

GNOME Terminal version 3.34 supports right to left scripts such as Arabic, and so do other VTE-based emulators (e.g. Tilix, Terminator, Xfce Terminal, Guake...) if using VTE version 0.58. No need to use bicon anymore.