If you have to set some configuration options in MobaXterm, you would probably go to the MobaXterm configuration window.
However, in order to keep a clean and simple graphical interface, some advanced settings are not displayed in the main configuration window:
- Some options can be set in MobaXterm Customizer program
- Some settings can be specified using commandline parameters
- Some advanced settings can be set manually, directly in MobaXterm configuration file MobaXterm.ini
We previously discussed about MobaXterm command-line parameters and MobaXterm Customization capabilities in another post, so we will now introduce some ways to modify MobaXterm settings directly into its “MobaXterm.ini” configuration file.
How to locate my MobaXterm configuration file?
Well, it depends… Your MobaXterm.ini configuration file should be located:
- in the same folder as MobaXterm executable if you are using MobaXterm Portable Edition
- in %MyDocuments%\MobaXterm folder if you are using MobaXterm Installer Edition
- in %MyDocuments%\MobaXterm folder if you are using MobaXterm Portable Edition and if you only have read access to the folder where the executable is
Moreover, you can use the -i commandline setting in order to determine the configuration file path for MobaXterm. For instance, you can specify the configuration file path manually at MobaXterm startup using the following command: C:\Some\place\MobaXterm.exe -i “D:\Data\MobaXterm.ini”
or you can use a network shared folder: C:\Some\place\MobaXterm.exe -i “\MySharedFolder\MobaXterm.ini”
or you can even use a web (HTTP) address in order to retrieve the configuration file: C:\Some\place\MobaXterm.exe -i https://MyIntranetServer/MobaXterm.ini In this case, the configuration file will be read from your intranet and any modification made by the user will be saved in a new MobaXterm.ini file created under %MyDocuments%\MobaXterm folder.
Which settings can be put in this INI file?
There are many settings which could be put in this MobaXterm.ini configuration file. We will just list the settings which cannot be set using the graphical interface. All these settings should be put under the [Misc] section of the configuration file. These options should be used by advanced users only:
| Setting | Default value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| MobaTempDir | %TEMP% | Path to MobaXterm temp folder |
| XWinSwitches | -hostintitle +bs | Additional X11 commandline parameters |
| Scrollbar | 1 | Toggle scrollbar visibility in terminal |
| SeparationLine | 1 | Toggle separation line visibility in terminal |
| BoldAsFont | no | Render bold text using bold font |
| BoldAsColour | yes | Render bold text using different colour |
| BellSound | no | Play a "beep" sound when terminal bell is triggered |
| BellFlash | no | Flash terminal when terminal bell is triggered |
| AllowBlinking | no | Allow font blinking in terminal |
| CtrlAltIsAltGr | no | Use Ctrl+Alt keys to simulate AltGr key press |
| NbPenguins | 4 | Number of penguins for the "consolesaver" |
| TimerConst | 600 | Time (in seconds) before starting the "consolesaver" |
| TimerInt | 100 | Time (in ms) between each penguin move in the "consolesaver" |
| PgUpDnScroll | 0 | Use PageUp/PageDown without "Shift" modifier for terminal scrolling |
| ScrollMod | shift | Change scroll modifier to ctrl/alt/shift |
| ScrollbackLines | 360000 | Specify scrollback buffer size |
Fine tuning of SFTP browser transfer settings
Concerning SFTP in MobaXterm, some settings can be tuned by editing them directly within MobaXterm configuration file (under the [SFTP] section):
| Setting | Default value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| AutoAdjustTransferBlock | 0 | Automatically adjust SFTP pipeline and packetsizes |
| PipelineLength | 32 | Number of download requests sent simultaneously |
| UploadPipelineLength | 32 | Number of upload requests sent simultaneously |
| DownloadBlockSize | 32 | Size of the single download request |
| UploadBlockSize | 64 | Size of the single upload request |
| SftpBufferSize | 256 | Size of the internal SFTP buffers |
| DefaultWindowSize | 2048 | Default SSH window size |
| MinWindowSize | 2 | Min SSH window size |
| MaxSSHPacketSize | 256 | Max SSH packet length |
We hope that this post will be helpful for you.
Of course, if you decide to tune these expert settings and if you report a bug to our support team, please do not forget to specify that you modified some advanced configuration settings!