Shortcuts don't work in KDE 4

[P. T.]

Various shortcuts in KDE don't work, even though they're configured correclty in the system settings. ALT+TAB for example, ALT+F4 or ALT+F2 don't work.

 This makes the whole Desktop almost totally unuseable for me. I've done some research and found out that some people in German speaking forums reportet, that the problem only appears when they've installed the German localization package, so I'm quite sure the problem is related to that.

I'm not sure if it's a Kubuntu or a KDE thing, anyway, please fix it, it's horrible to use the system whitout being able to swicht between windows with ALT+TAB! ;)

[Aitor Moreno (aitormoreno)]

using KDE 4.0:
in ubuntu 7.10,
kde4 repository: http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu
updated date: 2008-01-16

The Alt+TAB does not work (never did). The other shortcuts works fine.

I have played a while with the desktop effects, enabling and disabled several times the "box switch" effect, and the ALT+TAB is missing.

[Giorgio Catanzaro (catanzag)]

I got the same after Italian localization installation, but there is a fix that I got from this post http://www.kde-forum.org/artikel/18188/KDE4-keyboard-not-working-anymore.html . Changing the regional locale from Default to "Italia" and then set the language "Italiano" make kded4 loading the module (but you have to start kded4 before, please check bug #183047).

Now it works fine on every restart, only if I play with Services in systemsettings-kde4 and kded4 crashes, it stops working, but I can restart again easily in the same way I explained above.

hope this can help you.

[Juan Carlos I (juancarlos1)]

This is the same bug, duplicated. Now I include it here
#bug183047
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/meta-kde4/+bug/183047

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KDE4 keyboard shortcuts not working (Alt+F2, Ctrl+Esc, PrtSc...)

Hi, this is a kubuntu gutsy pc,
I installed a clean kde4.0 from ppa.
it's always updated and upgraded

I use kataput very often in 3.5.8, I expected keyboard shortcuts like alt+f2 to show krunner in kde4 but it does not.
krunner is running yet in the background, and it shows when I run it in a terminal.

Also:
Ctrl+Esc does not show ksysguard (I don't know the name for kde4 version)
PrtSc does not show ksnapshot
"Win" key does not show the kmenu, as i'd like to

Also trying to modify it in the systems preferences under the keyboard and mouse menu does not work.
It does not matter the key combinations assignated

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 tinin wrote on 2008-01-15: (permalink)

As seen here (I copy and paste the text) this is an unresolved bug
http://software-libre.rudd-o.com/KDE_4.0.0_emergency_FAQ#Global_shortcuts_.28ALT.2BF2_for_KRunner.2C_ALT.2BTab.2C_etc.29_aren.27t_working.3F.21

Global shortcuts (ALT+F2 for KRunner, ALT+Tab, etc) aren't working?!

Several people have mentioned this. This is an unexpected bug, it could be that:

   1. kded is not running, or
   2. that the GlobalAccel KDED module is not loaded.

The latter issue can be determined by issuing

    qdbus org.kde.kded

from konsole and seeing if KdedGlobalAccel appears in the output. If you get Service 'org.kde.kded' does not exist. you may issue

    kded4

to restart the daemon, followed by

    qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule kdedglobalaccel

to try to load the module. If KdedGlobalAccel does not appear, then you have this problem, a fix isn't know, yet.

There is a bug report filed at bugs.kde.org: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155429

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 tinin wrote on 2008-01-17: (permalink)

As seen at http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155429
I deleted ~/.kde4/share/config/kglobalshortcutsrc and then Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
Now it is working properly

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 EdNavarro wrote on 2008-01-21: (permalink)

I removed kde4-core (remove followed by autoremove), then deleted both my ~./kde and ~/.kde4 folders. Reinstalled kde4-core and rebooted. When I activated special effects I left improved alt-tab unchecked. Shortcuts work fine now.

I noticed previously that shortcuts only worked if I left the shortcuts configuration window up in the background...

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 Giorgio Catanzaro wrote on 2008-02-03: (permalink)

I got the same, but only after installing (Italian) localization (before everything worked fine). The same for bug #182719 for German one. I fixed setting Italian locale and languages, and automatically kded4 loaded kdedglobalaccel module.

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 tinin wrote 2 minutes ago: (perm...

[Luis Alberto Pabón (copong)]

Happened here after installing the spanish kde lang pack. Setting the language to spanish, killing kded4 and starting it again followed by X restart seems to have solved it so far.

Kubuntu Hardy fully updated, KDE 4.0.1 from ppa.

This is a clean Hardy install, since upgrade from Gutsy destroyed somehow the hal permissions thing.

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

Confirming due to responses, however I cannot confirm this issue as all of the shortcuts reported here work just fine for me. What do you all have that could be the root of this problem that would give you the problem and not others? Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Onlinelli (cornelius-maihoefer)]

In Kubuntu-KDE4 (Hardy) I can partly confirm this bug. When starting up, the shortcuts do work, but after opening programms Alt+F2 etc. stops working.

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

From all of the comments, it almost seems like using other than 'en' is causing the problems. I have noticed on a couple of occasions in the past that shortcuts would quit working, but only after a kded crash. I haven't seen them in a while, and it may have only been during the beta releases.

[Sokraates (sokraates)]

I can confirm this. Using SystemSettings to change the language and keyboard to German solved this problem after a reboot.

[Alex Wauck (awauck)]

I seem to recall running into this when I was running KDE4 from SVN before the release. This bug is probably known upstream. I have a Fedora 9 installation; I'll see if I can get it to happen there, too.

[Onlinelli (cornelius-maihoefer)]

For me: everything works fine now.

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

Alex, any luck confirming with your Fedora 9 box? I can't confirm with mine, but at the same time I am using the generic en locales.

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

For people having this problem, is kded4 running? I've run into this a few times, and sometimes running kded4 solved it (seems it crashes silently at some point). However, iirc sometimes that didn't help.
(I noticed this is mentioned in the duplicate report).

[FernandoMilton (fernandomilton)]

I just installed the newest Beta from Kubuntu (8.10 Remix, with KDE 4), and hit the same problem. I opened the terminal, ran "kded4 &" and all shortcuts began to work. Seems like it is kded4 fault, running it fix the symptom. Now, to find the real root of the problem, one must to determine why kded4 was not running in the first place.

[Fabio Alessandro Locati (f4l3)]

On the trunk version (31 May) all works fine.

[Alex Wauck (awauck)]

I've been running KDE 4.1 beta1 for a while now, and this problem has not yet happened. If it still happens to anyone, I would suggest running kded4 in a terminal with gdb (with debug symbols installed) so we can get a decent backtrace. I have noticed that 4.1 seems to ignore alt-tab occasionally, as if it just drops one or two alt-tab events. Also, Konqueror seems to have intermittent keyboard shortcut problems, but that's probably not related to this. Unfortunately, I nuked that Fedora 9 install I had, but I seem to recall running into this problem at least once on there.

[Think-Free (think-free)]

Hi Alex !
It append for me with kde 4.1, i think i came from the config file :
When you have your system in one language for example English, and you change shortcut than you change your language setting, shortcut changed doesn't work, you have to change back your shortcut to get it work. I suspect that shortcut config files are language dependent so shortcut recorded in Spanish will not work in French....
Well i think that's what append. Today i put the RC version of kde4.1 and my system came back to English and some shortcut didn't worked any more ( but not all ) as in system setting they where set correctly, coming back to original shortcut and resetting them again to what i wanted work for me ...
I hope my explanation is clear :)

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

What's the status of this in KDE 4.1.1?
And especially: which shortcuts are affected?

[vsuarez (vsuarez)]

Shortcuts are working for me in KDE 4.1.1.

[Rigo Wenning (rigo-w3)]

Shortcuts do not work for me in KDE 4.1.1. Starting kded4 and adding qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule kdedglobalaccel as documented here and confirmed in http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155429 fixed it temporarily

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

Shortcuts generally work for me in KDE 4.1.1 on Intrepid Alpha. However, shortcut for application launcher does not work. Reported separate bug on that as bug 271622 .

[Sokraates (sokraates)]

This bugs is fixed for me in Intrepid (KDE 4.1.1).

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Thank you.

[Uqbar (uqbar)]

As of KUbuntu 9.04 + KDE 4.2.4 the CTRL+Print Screen doesn't trigger the KSnapShot.
I need to (re)define the shortcut in System->System settings->Input Actions with a brand new hot key.