NOW AVAILABLE FOR EMBEDDED LINUX

Terminal Emulator
For Embedded Devices

Simple Terminal delivers a full-featured terminal experience directly on embedded Linux hardware — no X11, no Wayland, no desktop environment required.

Download Explore Features
L2
L1
R1
R2
SELECT
START
X
B
A
Y
Core Features

Everything a terminal needs.
Nothing it doesn't.

Built from the ground up for resource-constrained environments without sacrificing developer experience.

⚡
SDL2 Rendering
Renders directly to /dev/fb0 using the SDL2 library. No GPU drivers, no compositor, no overhead.
🖥
VT/ANSI Compatible
Full VT100/VT220/xterm-256color support. Works seamlessly with bash, zsh, vim, tmux, htop, and any ANSI-aware app.
🔤
Built-in Font Rendering
Ships with embedded bitmap and vector fonts. No fontconfig, no FreeType dependency headaches on minimal root filesystems.
⌨️
Direct Input Handling
Reads directly from /dev/input/event* and /dev/tty. Works with USB HID keyboards out of the box.
📦
Tiny Footprint
Single statically-linked binary under 2 MB. Runs on devices with 32 MB RAM. Ships with zero runtime dependencies.
🔒
Multi-Session Support
Switch between multiple virtual terminals with keyboard shortcuts. Each session is isolated with its own PTY and history.
🎨
True Color & Themes
24-bit colour support on capable framebuffers. Ships with built-in dark/light themes and a JSON theme loader.
🔗
Serial Console Bridge
Bridge between serial ports and the terminal UI. Ideal for debugging other devices or acting as a serial terminal gateway.
🛡
Secure by Design
Drop privileges after init, seccomp sandbox support, no network stack. Minimal attack surface for secure kiosk deployments.
Display-Server Free

Skip the stack.
Keep the power.

Traditional terminal emulators drag in an entire display-server dependency chain. Simple Terminal eliminates all of it — using SDL2 and run on anything with a Linux kernel.

SKIP X11 / Xorg not required
SKIP Wayland + libwayland not required
SKIP D-Bus / systemd-logind not required
SKIP Mesa / GPU drivers not required
USE SDL2 — Simple DirectMedia Layer 2 direct access
USE /dev/input — evdev input direct access
USE PTY — pseudo-terminal kernel native
Architecture

Lean by design.

Simple Terminal sits directly between the Linux kernel interfaces and your shell — a thin, performant layer with no unnecessary abstractions.

Hardware
Display Panel
Hardware
USB Keyboard / GPIO
Kernel driver
/dev/fb0  · fbdev
Kernel driver
/dev/input/event*
↔
Simple Terminal
Simple Terminal
single binary · <2 MB
↔
Kernel
PTY Master/Slave
Shell / Process
bash · zsh · sh
TUI Application
vim · htop · tmux · mc
Custom App
Your embedded software
Use Cases

Built for every edge.

From industrial controllers to IoT gateways, Simple Terminal runs wherever a standard Linux terminal is needed without the bloat.

🏭
Industrial HMI
Replace legacy panel computers running stripped-down Linux with a modern terminal UI. No DE needed on constrained SoCs.
🌐
IoT Gateways
Provide an on-device console for diagnostics and configuration on ARM-based gateways with minimal flash storage.
🚗
Automotive / In-Vehicle
Engineering debug terminal on automotive-grade SoCs. Boot directly to a terminal over a serialiser display link.
📡
Network Appliances
Console access on headless routers and switches via a locally-attached display — without standing up a full graphical stack.
🏥
Medical Devices
Minimal footprint reduces validation scope. Seccomp sandboxing and privilege separation support regulatory requirements.
🛰
Edge Compute
Operator access at the compute node without shipping a full Linux desktop. Perfect for Raspberry Pi CM and NVIDIA Jetson.
<2 MB
Binary size (static)
32 MB
Minimum RAM required
0
Runtime dependencies
256
Colour support (+ 24-bit)
ARMv7+
Target architectures

Download
simple-terminal

Drop Simple Terminal into your Buildroot or Yocto layer and have a terminal running in minutes — on any SDL2-capable Linux target.

Visit GitHub