keyboard bindings partially ignored

[Christian Roessner]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

I can not use Alt+F2 anymore to get the "Run command" dialog box. Even my "favorite" key which normally opened a gnome terminal does not work anymore (a bookmark manager appears, if I am pressing that key).

Some update must have killed this functionality. Checking with xev, I can see that the keys are recognized. The settings are ok in the gnome-keyboard-properties. So I do not know, what is going on here :-)

I tested with the generic keyboard (Doing a reset to defaults) as well as selecting evdev driven keyboard. Does not change things.

gnome-control-center 1:2.25.90-0ubuntu1

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)
Release: 9.04
Codename: jaunty

uname -a
Linux desktop 2.6.28-7-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 9 15:42:34 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Christian Roessner (christian-roessner-net)]

Because you have switched the assignment to compiz, I have tested it with metacity and there the key-bindings are functioning correctly.

[Chris (chris-yourdreamnet)]

I have this same problem. Everything was working fine in Intrepid, I upgraded to Jaunty and now Alt-F2 and Alt-F1 do nothing. Therefore they are not overridden by any other use in Compiz.

This was working fine before the upgrade.

[Chris (chris-yourdreamnet)]

I've figured it out. You need to use the compizconfig and enable Gnome Compatibility. Everything started working again then. I will leave this bug report open though as this needs to be set to enable on upgrade otherwise everyone will have to go and tick this box manually which is user friendly in the slightest.

[Christian Roessner (christian-roessner-net)]

Hi, this option (now?) is enabled and Alt+F2 is working again, but the
settings done under system->preferences->key bindings (Sorry, do not
know the exact text, because mine is german), for i.e. "run a console"
with XF86favorite is still ignored.

[Chris (chris-yourdreamnet)]

I think all the gnome key bindings are ignored now and Compiz handles
them all. You will need to click on the Gnome Compatibility button and
then change the keybinding to XF86favourite in there.

Christian Roessner wrote:
> Hi, this option (now?) is enabled and Alt+F2 is working again, but the
> settings done under system->preferences->key bindings (Sorry, do not
> know the exact text, because mine is german), for i.e. "run a console"
> with XF86favorite is still ignored.
>
>

[Neil Broadley (scaine)]

I think that the gnome-compatibility plug-in should be considered a default-on whenever compiz is enabled by Ubuntu GUIs (such as the System/Preferences/Appearance dialog).

If you use Appearance to turn on Compiz, on a new install, not only will keyboard shortcuts break instantly because gnome-compatibility-plugin isn't activate by default, but you'll also have no easy way to fix this (well, apart from turning off compiz again) because the compiz settings manager is also not installed by default on a new Ubuntu installation.

I don't think many new users will make the connection between turning on graphical effects and their key bindings breaking. And although you might then argue that new users won't be using Alt-F2, they probably will use printscreen.

[Fujiko Fujio (sitegeisha)]

This should have never been broken, or at least I think as scaine said gnome-compatibility should be enabled if gnome is running. Most guides online refer to using alt+f2 and breaking it just does not make sense at all, especially that disabling effects fixes it.

[Colin Stark (cstark)]

I had the same issue after updating from Intrepid to the Jaunty beta.
When I enabled the GNOME compatibility option in CCSM the problem was resolved.
However, I believe this setting is new in Jaunty and should somehow be enabled by default when updating if both Compiz and Gnome are detected.
If this can't be done then it should be made clear that this option needs to be enabled when updating to Jaunty as it wasn't clear why Alt+F2 suddenly stopped working while other shortcuts such as Alt+F3 and Alt+F4 were still working.

[Magnus (koma-lysator)]

This also happened to me when upgrading to Jaunty.
It's clearly a quite confusing regression.

[ksimon (krob1)]

In my case Alt-F1 isn't working any more, though Alt-F2 is. What's new and not quite desirable either: I can't leave the program launcher using the ESC-key. Either I must use the mouse, or I have to navigate (TAB-key) to the close-window-button. I'm not sure if this is the same problem as the one discussed above.

[ksimon (krob1)]

Here a comment to my last comment: I don't know why all these key shortcuts were redefined in Kubuntu 9.04. The ESC-key was blocked by "activate lock/logout mini program", a function I'd never ever need. After removing this definition in "Global Keyboard Shortcuts" the ESC key behaved normal again. Alt-F1 for the application launcher could be reactivated by using Kickoff's context menu.

[Daniel Lobo (dani-lobo)]

I upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 two weeks and I just came across this problem today for the first time.
All of a sudden some of the keyboard mappings just stopped working, e.g., alt+F4, ctrl+F4, ctrl+alt+arrows, etc.
I am using US keyboard with dead keys in case it is relevant.

Thanks

Respectfully

dmlobo

[Anthony DeChiaro (adechiaro)]

Same problem here, mine is mainly with raise/lower windows but sometimes all key bindings stop working (alt-tab, alt-f4, etc - mouse buttons too). Only solution I have found is to disable then re-enable compiz which gets old. I was using xbindkeys previously but not at the moment.

[Nullgrad (dargllun)]

Same issue here.

@Anthony: what do you mean by "which gets old"? I find that I need to restart compiz exactly once after booting. FWIW I use fusion-icon to do that, for convenience.

@all: it would be interesting if others tried this workaround. Does anyone have the slightest clue what compiz might be doing different when being restarted? There might be a timing issue - some (desktop?) facility compiz needs to set up its keyboard handling is not yet present when compiz is loaded the first time.

[Nullgrad (dargllun)]

This one about compiz/libx11 /might/ be related, and it even provides a fix, albeit only for Karmic:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz/+bug/357365

[tebeka (miki-tebeka)]

I've fixed that by installing compizconfig-settings-manager and then System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Setting Manager, click on Command and check "Enable Commands" on the left.

[Jeff Day (jeff-storago)]

I upgraded to Jaunty and had the same sort of issue. Alt+F2 still worked, but not Alt+F1, nor my shortcuts to open a terminal or to open an editor. (Which were assigned to Mod4+c and Mod4+e respectively) I went into CompizConfig Settings Manager and enabled the "Commands" plugin, and my editor and command prompt keys came back, but Alt+F1 was still broken.

After this, I went to a terminal and did metacity --replace & to switch to metacity and check it out --- the keybindings all still work in metacity. Then I did compiz --replace & to come back to Compiz and after doing this, Alt+F1 worked again.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Part of this bug was fixed by the compiz startup script checking for the gnomecompat plugin and enabling it if you don't have it and the other part is a duplicate of bug 355018.

[Rykel from Singapore (rykel98)]

Hi,

I found my some of GNOME Keyboard Shortcuts DISABLED after turning on Compiz.

Some of the disabled shortcuts are Alt-F2 (Run Program), Alt-Home (Home Folder), Alt-F1 (GNOME Menu Dropdown), Print Screen, Alt-Print Screen. I am sure there are more!

I enabled Compiz via System/Preferences/Appearance/Visual Effects/Custom/Preferences/"Ultimate" Profile.

Still on the topic of Keyboard Shortcuts - While trying to figure out where the problem was with the disabled keyboard shortcuts, I also messed up some of the shortcuts, and now I cannot remember their original keyboard bindings.

How can I reset the Keyboard Shortcuts to their Ubuntu Karmic defaults?

[Neil Broadley (scaine)]

As comment three points out, you need the compiz-settings-manager to enable gnome-compatibilty to get your keyboard shortcuts back (although this should be auto-detected and added automatically by Karmic). This app also includes a "reset to default value" button on almost all effects. You can use this to reset the bindings you've chnaged.