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matanster
Asked: 2015-01-14 18:18:47 +0800 CST

Setting special keys as keyboard shortcuts

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Binding keyboard shortcuts in Keyboard > Shortcuts > Launchers, to "special keyboard keys" like the Home, Search, Mail buttons etc., does not work on a new desktop (14.04.1), but did work on the former (14.04).

I can get those special keys of my keyboard (Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 7000) correctly identified when clicking them inside that settings screen, indicating the keys are recognized. However they do not in practice produce the "Launch" effect I have assigned to them there in that settings screen.

Rather, the mouse pointer just disappears when they are clicked (and shows again when the mouse is moved).

Oddly enough, they do get captured e.g. in Chrome, with their default Chrome behavior, but not by the desktop as expected by my settings.

Fiddling ls -l /dev/input/by-id and then sudo evtest /dev/input/.. I can notice these keys go through an event sink that is shared with mouse events, unlike those of ordinary keys on my keyboard.

I'm unsure:

  1. Why does this affect the desktop launchers, but not Chrome.. is Chrome just written better?
  2. Can I somehow avoid this?

Any ideas?

keyboard

2 Answers

  1. Read about Keybindings

    dconf-editor

    dconf-editor dconf-editor > org > gnome > desktop > wm > keybindings

    Key bindings are now stored in the dconf registry.

    You can install dconf-editor to be able to view and edit them: 

    sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

    or if you have universe repositories already installed get the package from UbuntuUpdates.org PPA's:

    dconf-tools trusty package Install dconf-tools

    You can also use gsettings command line tool.
    For example, to get key binding on the command line:

    gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows

    or to set a key binding on the command line:

    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows "['<Alt>Tab']"

    org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings

    Keybindings that are handled by the window manager are persisted in the org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings section of dconf. The Navigation, and Windows categories of shortcuts are stored here. In the past, each window manager was responsible for storing its own shortcuts under its own schema. Now both the metacity and compiz window managers use this central, unified set of bindings. There are mapping files in /usr/share/gnome-control-center/keybindings/ that show how these key bindings are used by each window manager.

    Multiple Keybindings

    The keybindings that are handled by the window manager support multiple keys that will perform the same action. The gnome-control-center GUI does not support it, but you can make it work using dconf-editor. For example, to have Close window use both the traditional Alt+F4 as well as an easier to hit Pause/Break button, change:

    org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings close to ['Pause', '<Alt>F4']

    org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys

    Shortcuts from the Launchers, Screenshots, Sound and media, System, and Custom shortcuts are stored here.

    Custom Shortcuts

    Custom shortcuts are stored in dconf using a "relocatable schema".
    The schema name is org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding
    Each custom key binding has three properties: name, command, and binding.
    Because of the relocatable schema, it is harder to use gsettings with custom shortcuts.

    Here is an example of getting the name of the first custom keybinding: 

    gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/ name

    org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power

    Four additional buttons are managed in org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power, they are:

    button-hibernate, button-power, button-sleep, and button-suspend.

    Possible values are suspend, sleep, hibernate, interactive, and nothing.

    These buttons are NOT currently managed by the gnome-control-center.

    If you want to reassign the sleep button on your keyboard,
    you MUST currently use dconf-editor to assign the button in this section to nothing.

    xbindkeys

    Also read about Text Entry Shortcuts with xbindkeys

    xmodmap

    And Mapping Windows Key with xmodmap

    Best wishes,

    • 16

  2. What I found so far, is that based on the answer from @swift and some evtest the way it is saved in dconf is not recognized by the system when you do it using the shortcuts from the settings, where it is saved like "Launch5, Launch6, Launch7, etc"

    So you have to go to the gconf-editor and use the "code" of the key so you will have something like "XF86Launch5, XF86Launch6, XF86Launch7, etc"

    The code I was able to get it with the instructions from xbindkeys and xbindkeys -k

    edit: I wasn't able to add some images due the lack of reputation

    • 2