How can I open a konsole with a blue background and white fonts?

[E. Robinson]

How can I open a bash konsole with a blue background & white fonts?

When I open a terminal window using the "konsole" command, the default is
a black background with green characters.

When I open the bash console using the right-click "Open in terminal"
Nautilus command, the default is a gray background with black characters.

So, I know a konsole can be opened with a set of background and foreground
colors.

If I want to open a terminal with a blue background and white characters,
I can try this command (but it fails):
$ konsole -fg whte -bg blue

Unfortunately, there is no manpage for "konsole".
$ man konsole
No manual entry for konsole
See 'man 7 undocumented' for help when manual pages are not available.

The help for "konsole" doesn't list colors as an option:
$ konsole --help
$ konsole --help
Usage: konsole [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [options] [args]
Terminal emulator
Generic options:
--help Show help about options
--help-qt Show Qt specific options
--help-kde Show KDE specific options
--help-all Show all options
--author Show author information
-v, --version Show version information
--license Show license information
-- End of options
Options:
--profile <name> Name of profile to use for new Konsole instance
--fallback-profile Use the internal FALLBACK profile
--workdir <dir> Set the initial working directory of the new tab or window to 'dir'
--hold, --noclose Do not close the initial session automatically when it ends.
--new-tab Create a new tab in an existing window rather than creating a new window
--tabs-from-file <file> Create tabs as specified in given tabs configuration file
--background-mode Start Konsole in the background and bring to the front when
Ctrl+Shift+F12 (by default) is pressed
--separate Run in a separate process
--show-menubar Show the menubar, overriding the default setting
--hide-menubar Hide the menubar, overriding the default setting
--show-tabbar Show the tabbar, overriding the default setting
--hide-tabbar Hide the tabbar, overriding the default setting
--fullscreen Start Konsole in fullscreen mode
--notransparency Disable transparent backgrounds, even if the system supports them.
--list-profiles List the available profiles
--list-profile-properties List all the profile properties names and their type (for use with -p)
-p <property=value> Change the value of a profile property.
-T <value> Debian policy compatibility, not used
-e <cmd> Command to execute. This option will catch all following arguments,
so use it as the last option.
Arguments:
args Arguments passed to command
Use --nofork to run in the foreground (helpful with the -e option).

How can I open a bash konsole with a blue background & white fonts?

[Eef Hartman]

E. Robinson <E.Rob...@merck.com> wrote:
> How can I open a bash konsole with a blue background & white fonts?

By adjusting its default profile in
$HOME/.kde/share/apps/konsole (most likely the file Shell.profile)
The best way is from the menu's in a running Konsole window:
settings / Edit current profile / Appearance

Note that (at least in kde 4) kde programs do not use "colors", they
use schemes, i.e.
ColorScheme=BlackOnLightYellow

But (again for KDE 4) you can set them from the commandline using
--foreground and --background options

> When I open the bash console using the right-click "Open in terminal"
> Nautilus command, the default is a gray background with black characters.

That probably isn't konsole but the Gnome terminal, Nautilus is not a
KDE program. I have removed it from my system so cannot tell you where
IT stores its default assocoiations.

[William Unruh]

On 2015-12-27, E. Robinson <E.Rob...@merck.com> wrote:
> How can I open a bash konsole with a blue background & white fonts?

Open the console. Click on Settings. Click on Edit Current Profile.
Click on Appearance. Click on Edit and choose.
Then click on OK and your default will be what you chose.

[J.O. Aho]

On 12/27/2015 09:18 AM, E. Robinson wrote:
> How can I open a bash konsole with a blue background & white fonts?
>
> When I open a terminal window using the "konsole" command, the default is
> a black background with green characters.
>
> When I open the bash console using the right-click "Open in terminal"
> Nautilus command, the default is a gray background with black characters.

They have different default colour themes. Both supports you to edit and
add new profiles.

> So, I know a konsole can be opened with a set of background and foreground
> colors.
>
> If I want to open a terminal with a blue background and white characters,
> I can try this command (but it fails):
> $ konsole -fg whte -bg blue

you need to create a profile in konsole, see what William wrote, instead
of editing the current one, you create a new one.

After that you can run the following:
konsole --profile <name of your blue and white profile>

You can use the -p option to change values like ColorScheme or/and
colors, this will require so testing, you can take a look at
http://api.kde.org/4.14-api/applications-apidocs/konsole/html/classKonsole_1_1Profile.html#a57848e15fe69d3f27565851fe7cda429


--

//Aho

[E. Robinson]

On Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:21:56 +0000, William Unruh wrote:

> Open the console. Click on Settings. Click on Edit Current Profile.
> Click on Appearance. Click on Edit and choose.
> Then click on OK and your default will be what you chose.

That worked to change the current default for the Konsole!

Initially, I had no "Settings" menu because I had no menubar.

But then I belatedly realized long ago I must have turned off
the Konsole window's "menubar", so placing the cursor inside the
Konsole terminal window and pressing Control+Shift+M toggled the
menubar back on and off.

https://i.imgur.com/iPhspaa.jpg

With the menubar toggled on, I saw the menu item for "Settings",
and then I was able to set the appearance for the default konsole:

Settings > Edit Current Profile > Appearance > {set options}

Since I'm on "KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3", Eef Hartman
says above that there are color "schemes", and that I can set
them on-the-fly in KDE 4 using "--foreground & --background"
options, even though those two options aren't listed in the
output from "konsole --help" (there are no konsole manpages).

But, those two suggested options don't seem to work:
$ konsole --foreground green --background red
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
{Where the konsole still comes up as the default colors, every time.)

[E. Robinson]

On Sun, 27 Dec 2015 08:50:30 +0000, Eef Hartman wrote:

> But (again for KDE 4) you can set them from the commandline using
> --foreground and --background options

I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 with "KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3"

$ kde4-config --version
Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3
kde4-config: 1.0

But, those two suggested options don't seem to work:
$ konsole --foreground green --background red

The konsole comes up with the default color scheme no matter
what command options I put into the command line to start it.

However, I was able to create a new profile by opening a
konsole window and postitioning the cursor in that window
and pressing Control+Shift+M to toggle the menubar on and off.

With the konsole window menubar toggled on,
Settings > Manage Profiles > New Profile >
I was able to create a new "blue profile".

But, I was NOT able to invoke that blue profile using the
command line option suggested prior by J.O. Aho:

$ konsole -profile blue profile
$ konsole -profile "blue profile"
$ konsole -p "blue profile"
X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
Major opcode: 20 (X_GetProperty)
Resource id: 0x660001a

So, I can use the menus to create and switch to the "blue profile",
but I can't invoke that blue profile (yet) from the command line.

[J G Miller]

On Monday, December 28th, 2015, at 23:57:48h +0000,

E. Robinson wrote:

> But, those two suggested options don't seem to work:
> $ konsole --foreground green --background red

They do work but they change the color of the everything but the
terminal part of konsole ie the menubar, the menus etc.

What you actually need to do is, as explained in other messages,
is either changed the colors of the default profile by going to

Menubar menu -> Settings -> Edit Current Profile

or
-> Manage Profiles

and then be sure to save the profile once the change has been made.

So say you created a new profile called RedOnGreen

You could then start konsole with

konsole -profile RedOnGreen

If you insist on putting spaces in your profile names then you must
enclose the profile name on the command line with single or double quote
viz

konsole --profile "Red On Green"

Once you have that all set up and working you could then create desktop
menu entries Konsole - Red, Konsole - Blue, which then calls konsole
with the appropriately named profile.

In GNULinuxLand, it is generally best to avoid spaces in file names unless
you are prepared for all the hassles of ensuring you use quotes around
the file names with spaces when passing the file name as a parameter.

[E. Robinson]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 00:21:15 +0000, J G Miller wrote:

> Menubar menu -> Settings -> Edit Current Profile
> or
> -> Manage Profiles
> and then be sure to save the profile once the change has been made.
> So say you created a new profile called RedOnGreen
> You could then start konsole with
> konsole -profile RedOnGreen

1. I opened up a default console, put my cursor in that console, and
2. I pressed Control+Shift+M to add the menubar to that console and
3. I selected Menubar: Settings > Switch Profile > {blue,Shell,white}

Here is a picture of the three profiles:
https://i.imgur.com/CrEzzV7.gif

4. Then I run the suggested command, but it fails every single time:
$ konsole -profile blue
$ konsole -profile "blue"

5. What happens is a new konsole is opened up, but with the same
default color scheme as the original "Shell" konsole.

All that I can conclude is that the "blue" profile exists, but, that
the "-profile" options isn't a real option in my version of konsole:

6. $ konsole --version

Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3

Konsole: 2.13.2

[Eef Hartman]

E. Robinson <E.Rob...@merck.com> wrote:
> Since I'm on "KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3", Eef Hartman
> says above that there are color "schemes", and that I can set
> them on-the-fly in KDE 4 using "--foreground & --background"
> options, even though those two options aren't listed in the
> output from "konsole --help" (there are no konsole manpages).

You should use "konsole --help-all | less", that's how I found them
too. I never used them, so I do not know what execatly they do.
The --profile option can be found the same way.

[E. Robinson]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 11:17:22 +0000, Eef Hartman wrote:

> You should use "konsole --help-all | less", that's how I found them
> too. I never used them, so I do not know what execatly they do.
> The --profile option can be found the same way.

Thanks for that command (dunno why "--help" didn't work though).
It seems there are QT options and KDE options and regular options.

$ konsole --help-all

Usage: konsole [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [options] [args]

Qt options:

...
--fn, --font <fontname> defines the application font
--bg, --background <color> sets the default background color and an
application palette (light and dark shades are
calculated)
--fg, --foreground <color> sets the default foreground color
...
KDE options:
...

Options:
--profile <name> Name of profile to use for new Konsole instance

Testing, none of these seem to work.
They simply do no more than just typing "konsole" does.
$ konsole --background blue --foreground white
$ konsole --background "blue" --foreground "white"
$ konsole --bg blue --fg white
$ konsole --profile blue
etc.

It's strange that the options are documented but that they utterly fail
to actually work.

$ which konsole
/usr/bin/konsole
$ file /usr/bin/konsole
$ file /usr/bin/konsole
/usr/bin/konsole: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.24, BuildID[sha1]=8fc20c833ecc592716508d28ddbe6a8bfed3ffd0, stripped

[E. Robinson]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 16:05:34 +0000, E. Robinson wrote:

> It's strange that the options are documented but that they utterly fail
> to actually work.

I think I found a bug in konsole.

Clearly, when I open a konsole and control+shift+m to get the menus and
then look in the settings, I get only these three profiles:
$ konsole
Settings > Manage Profiles > blue, Shell, white
Settings > Switch Profile > blue, Shell, white

Yet, when I type the command below, I get *different* profiles:
$ konsole --list-profiles
green profile
Shell
white

When I use *those* profiles, the colors (finally) come up!
$ konsole --profile "green profile"
$ konsole --profile Shell
$ konsole --profile white

Interestingly, when I subsequently edited the profiles with the
Settings > Manage Profiles menu, I was able to get the new
menus to come up, but only using the name that is shown in
the command line, and NOT the name (necessarily) that showed
up in the GUI.

That's odd. It's most likely a bug.
And setting the konsole colors on the command line still fails,
but, at least now I have a somewhat unreliable workaround that
is all I need to move forward.

My workaround to the konsole bug is the following:
1. I will give up on trying to set the colors from the command line.
2. I will NEVER use the colors that are shown in the Settings GUI!
3. I will use the Settings GUI to *set* the colors though.
4. Then I will use the command line to list the profiles.
5. And then, I can use the command line to open a konsole
using a particular profile!
Thanks.

[E. Robinson]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 16:20:15 +0000, E. Robinson wrote:

> I think I found a bug in konsole.

I think it's maybe not so much buggy but touchy, although it
may also be buggy since the most basic things like --fg and --bg
don't work from the command line.

One problem I have found, with experimentation, is that the konsole
profile that you *think* you created isn't the profile that you
*actually* created.

That is, if you create a konsole profile called "New Profile" by
default, and then you go back and subsequently edit it, and, you
change the name to "BlackOnWhite", what you see in the GUI and
what you see at the command line are *two* different things!

GUI: You see the last-edited profile name of "BlackOnWhite".
CMD: You see the *original* profile name of "New Profile".

So, when you start konsole with a profile, you will *fail* if you
use the name that is shown in the GUI!

THIS WILL FAIL:
$ konsole --profile BlackOnWhite

THIS WILL WORK:
$ konsole --profile "New Profile"

What I learned is to *never trust* whatever the konsole Settings
GUI tells you and to *only trust* what the konsole command says!

NEVER TRUST:
konsole: Settings > Manage Profiles

ONLY TRUST:
$ konsole --list-profiles

[William Unruh]

Of course you could just make your default profile do what you want and
then just start konsole

[E. Robinson]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 05:10:12 +0000, William Unruh wrote:

> Of course you could just make your default profile do what you
> want and then just start konsole

I had thought of that, but my purpose is to have three very
different konsole profiles, each for a specific purpose:

1. The default (for most things)
2. A color one (for a process that is always running)
3. A color two (for a second process that is always running)

The reason I care is I keep accidentally messing with the two
always-running windows, simply because they *look* the same.

So, now that I have three profiles, I can easily start the
processes in vividly colored konsole windows, so that I won't
accidentally mess with them.

I changed the icon that shows up on the panel, but one thing
I would like to do is *create* a new icon so that they look
consistent.

I noticed the default icon is named "utilities-terminal", but,
I don't know *where* it is stored.

All I want to do is change the color of that icon so that I
can assign that icon to each of my two custom profiles.

But, *which* file is the "utilities-terminal" icon?
There are millions of them!

$ locate utilities-terminal
/usr/share/app-install/icons/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/16x16/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/22x22/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/24x24/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/256x256/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/32x32/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/48x48/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/scalable/apps/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/128/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/128/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/16/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/16/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/22/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/22/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/24/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/24/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/32/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/32/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/48/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/48/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/64/Etermutilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/64/utilities-terminal.svg
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/22x22/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/24x24/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/256x256/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/48x48/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/apps/utilities-terminal-symbolic.svg
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/128x128/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/16x16/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/22x22/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/32x32/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/48x48/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/64x64/apps/utilities-terminal.png
/usr/share/shutter/resources/icons/drawing_tool/objects/Tango icon library/Apps/utilities-terminal.svg

How do I know which file is the actual icon for the terminal?

[Bit Twister]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 05:24:40 -0000 (UTC), E. Robinson wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 05:10:12 +0000, William Unruh wrote:
>
>> Of course you could just make your default profile do what you
>> want and then just start konsole
>
> I had thought of that, but my purpose is to have three very
> different konsole profiles, each for a specific purpose:
>
> 1. The default (for most things)
> 2. A color one (for a process that is always running)
> 3. A color two (for a second process that is always running)

Seems like a lot of work using konsole. Personally I use xterm.
Much easier to script fg,bg,cusor,colors/fonts/geometry/.....

Of course I use a few in my scripts.
$ grep xterm /local/bin/* | wc -l
304

> So, now that I have three profiles, I can easily start the
> processes in vividly colored konsole windows, so that I won't
> accidentally mess with them.

Yes, they also help when running on different nodes and/or user in
different virtual desktops. I run with 8 desktops.

You might also consider setting the title to something descriptive.
That way middle mouse button click will be a bit more informative.

> I changed the icon that shows up on the panel, but one thing
> I would like to do is *create* a new icon so that they look
> consistent.

Launch gimp and build whatever you like.

> I noticed the default icon is named "utilities-terminal", but,
> I don't know *where* it is stored.

Where it is stored is going to depend to currently running theme and
icon size.

> All I want to do is change the color of that icon so that I
> can assign that icon to each of my two custom profiles.

Personally I would change the icon, not just color.

Well, those NNxNN are your first hint and depend on your
default/current settings. There are two places to set your icon sizes.
systemsettings->Application Appearance->Icons->Advanced Size:

I usually run with 22. Other location is right click somewhere empty
on your desktop, select Folder Settings, Icons.

Having seen my icons change over the years, I created my own icon
directory to store all my common icons used by $HOME/Desktop/*.desktop files.

All I then had to do is set which one to use in the x.desktop file.
Current saved icon selections
$ ls /local/icons
10min.png gnumeric.png kbugbuster.png rocksndiamonds.png
brasero.png home.png kill.png skype.png
calc.png hwinfo.png mythtv.png speaker.png
cash.png im-qq.png package_utilities.png vinagre.png
dasher.png kaffeine.png pavu.png wallet-open.png
email.png kalarm.png penguin.png webmin.png
firefox.png kalzium.png previewer.png xorg.png
gnome-iagno.png kbounce.png rawconverter.png xterm.png

Usage example:
$ grep Icon= xbrowser.desktop
Icon=/local/icons/firefox

[J G Miller]

On Wednesday, December 30th, 2015, at 07:05:02h +0000,

Bit Twister wrote:

> Seems like a lot of work using konsole. Personally I use xterm.
> Much easier to script fg,bg,cusor,colors/fonts/geometry/.....

Do you need the Tek mode of xterm?

If not, then it really would be better to use rxvt or even urxvt.

Presumably you are aware that a good way to use "profiles" with
xterm/rxvt/urxvt is with the -name option so that passing all the
fg, bg, cursor, colors, fonts, and maybe geometry parameters is
not necessary.

For example in $XAPPLRESDIR/URxvt


!+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+!
!| URxvt - shell - defaults |!
!+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+!

shell.iconName: root
shell.title: * root shell *

shell.backgroundPixmap:
/usr/local/X11R6/share/wallpapers/xpm/tile/Paper-Dark_Green.xpm

shell.foreground: #eec600
shell.background: #082200
shell.borderColor: #204430

shell.cursorColor: #ffd700
shell.cursorColor2: #071100

shell.pointerColor: #7fff00

shell.scrollColor: #5ddd00
shell.troughColor: #3bbb00

shell.font: xft:Luxi Mono:autohint=true:pixelsize=16
shell.boldFont: xft:Luxi Mono:autohint=true:bold:pixelsize=16
shell.italicFont: xft:Luxi Mono:autohint=true:italic:pixelsize=16
shell.boldItalicFont: xft:Luxi Mono:autohint=true:bold:italic:pixelsize=16


then one does "urxvt -name shell -e su -" to get a root X Terminal emulator with all
of the above properties. In the defaults file one may setup appropriate color schemes
for all different applications running in a terminal that are better with distinctive
colors eg ftp, irc, slogin, top, vi, view ...

[Bit Twister]

You can do the same thing with ~/.Xresources

!!!!
!! -----------------[ XMAN Stuff ]--------------------------------------
!!
!!Xman*manualFontNormal: timr18
!!Xman*manualFontBold: timb18
!!Xman*manualFontItalic: timi18
!!Xman*directoryFontNormal: timr18
Xman*background: White
!!Xman*foreground: Saddlebrown
!!Xman*Command.foreground: Red
!!Xman*topBox*foreground: Blue
!!Xman*Text.border: Red
!!Xman*Label.font: timr14

!!-----------------[ EMACS ]------------------------------------------
!!
emacs*Background: DarkSlateGray
emacs*Foreground: Wheat
emacs*pointerColor: Orchid
emacs*cursorColor: Orchid
emacs*bitmapIcon: on
emacs.geometry: 80x25

emacs*Font: 10x20
emacs*title: emacs
emacs*iconName: emacs
emacs*iconState: on
emacs*iconUseBitmap: on
emacs*internalBorder: 10


For the lurkers, if you do not want to use those hex color values or
be restricted by primary colors you can install showrgb to get color
names.

Examples
$ showrgb | grep -i pale
175 238 238 pale turquoise
175 238 238 PaleTurquoise
152 251 152 pale green
152 251 152 PaleGreen
238 232 170 pale goldenrod
238 232 170 PaleGoldenrod
219 112 147 pale violet red
219 112 147 PaleVioletRed
187 255 255 PaleTurquoise1
174 238 238 PaleTurquoise2
150 205 205 PaleTurquoise3
102 139 139 PaleTurquoise4
154 255 154 PaleGreen1
144 238 144 PaleGreen2
124 205 124 PaleGreen3
84 139 84 PaleGreen4
255 130 171 PaleVioletRed1
238 121 159 PaleVioletRed2
205 104 137 PaleVioletRed3
139 71 93 PaleVioletRed4

[J G Miller]

On Wednesday, December 30th, 2015, at 15:23:58 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

> On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 15:01:05 -0000 (UTC), J G Miller wrote:
>> On Wednesday, December 30th, 2015, at 07:05:02h +0000,
>> Bit Twister wrote:

> You can do the same thing with ~/.Xresources

Of course, but it is better to keep the resources in different
files for each application/class, because then they are easier
to manage.

And by keeping them in different files, they can be selectively
loaded into the Xrdb database, or only used at the time of
instantiation of the program which means that the program does
not have to read a huge .Xresources file for stuff it does not
need.

Also note that if you want to use the resource name feature for
different applications eg use name "shell" for both XTerm and
Rxvt, one does need to put them both in different files because
the resources for XTerm and Rxvt are different and sometimes the
values might even conflict.

[E. Robinson]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 07:05:02 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

> Seems like a lot of work using konsole. Personally I use xterm.
> Much easier to script fg,bg,cusor,colors/fonts/geometry/.....

I used to use xterm, but I can't make it do tabs from the command line.
So, since I have to manually add tabs, I went back to konsole.

[Marek Novotny]

On 2015-12-30, E. Robinson <E.Rob...@merck.com> wrote:

Have you heard of tmux or screen?

--
Marek Novotny
https://github.com/marek-novotny

[E. Robinson]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 07:05:02 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

>> I changed the icon that shows up on the panel, but one thing
>> I would like to do is *create* a new icon so that they look
>> consistent.
>
> Launch gimp and build whatever you like.
>
>> I noticed the default icon is named "utilities-terminal", but,
>> I don't know *where* it is stored.
>
> Where it is stored is going to depend to currently running theme and
> icon size.
>
>> All I want to do is change the color of that icon so that I
>> can assign that icon to each of my two custom profiles.
>
> Personally I would change the icon, not just color.

Yippeee!
I worked it all out for the icons and for the konsole profiles.

My workaround to the konsole bug is the following:
1. I will give up on trying to set the colors from the command line.

$ konsole --fg green --bg black

2. I will NEVER use the colors that are shown in the Settings GUI!

konsole: Control+Shift+M > Settings > Switch Profile > {Shell,Default,blue}

3. I will use the Settings GUI to *set* the colors though.

konsole: Control+Shift+M > Settings > Manage Profiles > New Profile

4. Then I will use the command line to list the profiles.

$ konsole --list-profiles
BlackOnGray
BlackOnGreen
Shell
YellowOnBlack
5. And then, I can use the command line to open a konsole that was listed!
$ konsole --profile blue
$ konsole --profile BlackOnBlue
6. Notice permission, size, & location of the "app" icons in the panel, e.g.,
$ ls -l /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/*.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3296 Dec 29 22:40 *.png
Most are 48x48 pixels.
7. Locate, save, & size to 48x48 any desired "terminal" icon in images.google.com
e.g., http://www.iconattitude.com/icons/open_icon_library/apps/png/256/gksu-root-terminal.png
$ cp gksu-root-terminal.png terminal.png
$ kolourpaint terminal.png (then size it to 48x48 pixels)
8. Copy that icon to a variety of names & color them accordingly:
$ cp terminal.png terminal-BlackOnGray.png
$ gimp terminal-BlackOnGray.png
Gimp: Select > By Color > {choose original color}
Gimp: Colors > Colorify > {choose new color}
Gimp: File > Save a Copy > terminal-BlackOnGray.xcf
terminal-BlackOnGreen.xcf
terminal-YellowOnBlack.xcf
terminal-GreenOnBlack.xcf
etc.
$ for i in *.xcf; do convert $i $i.png;done
$ sudo chown root *png
$ sudo chmod 644 *png
$ sudo cp *.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/.

Do this for each color.
Go back into Konsole settings to choose these icons for each profile.

There is still the frustrating bug that one of the konsole GUI profile
names still doesn't match the konsole --list-profiles name, but I will
just delete it and start over now that I have this handy procedure.