Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1216910
In Process
Wildcard
Asked: 2020-03-14 09:34:33 +0800 CST

How to search ALL keyboard shortcuts within KDE Plasma? (Not by web)

  • 772

I have just started using Kubuntu with KDE Plasma.

I wanted to look up the keyboard shortcut for switching users. Typing "switch user" in the application launcher turned up nothing. Clicking "Leave" and mousing over the "Switch User" list entry turned up nothing.

I finally found the keyboard shortcut by opening up "global keyboard shortcuts" (can be opened through system settings, or directly), and then clicking on "ksmserver" and then seeing the shortcut for "Lock Session."

As far as I can tell, there is no shorter way to find the shortcut. The search box above the list of shortcuts will ONLY search the currently selected list, which is one of: Accessibility, Audio Volume, KDE Daemon, ksmserver, KWin, Plasma, Power Management, Run Command. I don't see any way to search all of those keyboard shortcuts at the same time.

That search box also won't search the "Standard Shortcuts," which have to be opened separately unless you go in through "System Settings" in the first place. Likewise "Web Shortcuts" and "Custom Shortcuts" have to be searched separately. (A search in the application launcher for "Shortcuts" won't turn up the "System Settings Shortcuts" view either, by the way, so it was just serendipity that I found it at all rather than just the four separate views it contains.)

How can I search ALL keyboard shortcuts in KDE?

And to give a practical immediate use for this, also: when I try to close System Settings using Ctrl-Q, I get a chime and a popup message:

The key sequence Ctrl+Q is ambiguous. Use 'Configure Shortcuts' from the 'Settings' menu to solve the ambiguity. No action will be triggered.

Looking through the keyboard shortcut lists and sorting by keyboard shortcut (rather than by action name), I don't see Ctrl-Q bound to anything except "Quit." So how can I find out why this is ambiguous?

(Note that I would like a two-way search: search by action name, and search by keyboard shortcut. A complete answer would include both, but having just one or the other would still be good.)

kde shortcut-keys kubuntu search

1 Answers

  1. Shortcuts are recorded in ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc and ~/.config/khotkeysrc.

    Global Shortcuts > ksmserver only lists shortcuts for

    • Halt Without Confirmation
    • Lock Session
    • Log Out
    • Log Out Without Confirmation
    • Reboot Without Confirmation

    There is no shortcut in that GUI for Switch Users.

    Re.

    And to give a practical immediate use for this, also: when I try to close System Settings using Ctrl-Q, I get a chime and a popup message:

    The key sequence 'Ctrl+Q' is ambiguous. Use 'Configure Shortcuts' from the 'Settings' menu to solve the ambiguity. No action will be triggered.

    I have no problem closing System Settings with Ctrl+Q in Kubuntu 18.04 (Plasma 5.12.9), 19.10 (Plasma 5.18.3), and 20.04 (also Plasma 5.18.3).

    However, when I try to set Ctrl+Q for something else, I too get a chime with the following pop-up which clearly states what current role is assigned to Ctrl+Q and so differs from what you posted:

    Shortcut Conflict

    Please note that it is preferable to ask one specific issue per question just like in Unix & Linux.

    • 2