The Run Application dialog gives you access to the command line. When you run a command in the Run Application dialog, you cannot receive output from the command.
To run a command from the command line perform the following steps:
Open the Run Application dialog in any of the following ways:
You can add the Run Application button to any panel. See Section 4.3.2 ― Adding an Object to a Panel. Click on the Run Application panel button to open the Run Application dialog.
Press Alt+F2. You can change the shortcut keys that display the Run Application dialog in the Keyboard Shortcuts preference tool.
The Run Application dialog is displayed.
Enter the command that you want to run in the blank field, or choose from the list of known applications.
If you enter only the location of a file, an appropriate application will launch to open it. If you enter a web page address, your default web browser will open the page. Prefix the web page address with http://, as in http://www.gnome.org.
To choose a command that you ran previously, click the down arrow button beside the command field, then choose the command to run.
You can also use the Run with file button to choose a file to append to the command line. For example, you can enter emacs as the command, then choose a file to edit.
Select the Run in terminal option to run the application or command in a terminal window. Choose this option for an application or command that does not create a window in which to run.
Click on the Run button on the Run Application dialog.