CTRL+ALT+T - shortcut to open Terminal is does not work

[theghost]

The global shortcut CTRL+ALT+T to open a new terminal windows is missing in Ubuntu since 14.04
Please reenable it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: gnome-terminal 3.6.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-17.37-generic 3.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-17-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Mar 13 18:01:32 2014
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-12-10 (92 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-03-07 (6 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alfredo Marchini (alfredo.marchini)]

I have the same problem.
I don't know if it's related, but I use an Asus N56VZ, and the volume fn keys don't working, but in keyboard shortcuts window I can configure them and are correctly recognized.

[Alfredo Marchini (alfredo.marchini)]

Update: none of the fn keys is working more after the upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04, except laptop monitor on/off button.
The fn keys are:

keyboard backlight increase
keyboard backlight decrease
monitor lightness increase
monitor lightness decrease
monitor switch
trackpad on / off
volume off
volume down
volume up
screenshot
camera
cpu governor (fn+space).
calculator (fn+keynum enter).

[theghost (theghost)]

@Alfredo: Non-working FN-keys is not related to this issue.

Also regarding the original bug report. This issue is fixed for me since the release date.

[Alfredo Marchini (alfredo.marchini)]

Sorry... I'll write a new bug... thank you for the reply

[Ajith R N (trytoinnovate)]

i have the same issue!

[John (jov14)]

I suddenly have the same issue. The Keyboard-shortcut CTRL+ALT+T used worked perfectly until now (using Ubuntu 14.04 with an xfce4-desktop). But after a restart today this shortcut is ignored (even though it is still listed in the configured shortcuts and all other shortcuts are still working).

[John (jov14)]

Addition: Shortcuts resume to work after logging out and logging back in again by killing all processes with "kill -9 -1".
However it was not possible to logout via the menue due to some still running processes (maybe those "open terminal" commands I've called via keyboard-shortcut but which weren't executed?). Possibly this is related

[theghost (theghost)]

I do not have this issue anymore since a long time. Might be fixed with 14.10.

[avdd (avdd)]

Restarting lightdm seems to fix it, if this is the same problem described here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/498968/ctrl-alt-t-stopped-working-ubuntu-14-04

[Jari Hyle (rulqu)]

I have this bug sometimes when starting Ubuntu 15.04. Restarting lightdm fixes it.

[Andrei (andrei-doom)]

Indeed, issue persists in 15.04 and restarting lightdm with "sudo service lightdm restart" fixes it. Reopen the issue as it is not fixed yet.

[Leonardo Donelli (learts92)]

I also still encounter this problem sporadically in 15.04

[mathias (mathias-nygard)]

affects me too this bug - ctrl key has stopped working

[Jean-Pierre Rupp (xenog)]

I get this problem sometimes in Ubuntu 15.04. Logging out and then logging back in usually fixes it.

[Anthony Kamau (ak-launchpad)]

I get this from time to time as well and it gets frustrating. I can resolve the issue by restarting lightdm (or rebooting), but it is frustrating as hell as I'm heavily dependent on that shortcut. For instance, I currently have 6 VM's running on my laptop and right now have to shut them down just to get this shortcut back. Other shortcuts using CTRL+ALT (such heading to tty1-6 via F1-F6 and back to the GUI via F7) are working so not sure why it only affects the terminal in the GUI!

$ uname -a
Linux akk-m6700.anroet.com 3.16.0-44-generic #59~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 7 15:07:27 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
(linux-generic-lts-utopic)

$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch:core-4.1-amd64:core-4.1-noarch:cxx-3.0-amd64:cxx-3.0-noarch:cxx-3.1-amd64:cxx-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.2-amd64:cxx-3.2-noarch:cxx-4.0-amd64:cxx-4.0-noarch:cxx-4.1-amd64:cxx-4.1-noarch:desktop-3.1-amd64:desktop-3.1-noarch:desktop-3.2-amd64:desktop-3.2-noarch:desktop-4.0-amd64:desktop-4.0-noarch:desktop-4.1-amd64:desktop-4.1-noarch:graphics-2.0-amd64:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-amd64:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-amd64:graphics-3.2-noarch:graphics-4.0-amd64:graphics-4.0-noarch:graphics-4.1-amd64:graphics-4.1-noarch:languages-3.2-amd64:languages-3.2-noarch:languages-4.0-amd64:languages-4.0-noarch:languages-4.1-amd64:languages-4.1-noarch:multimedia-3.2-amd64:multimedia-3.2-noarch:multimedia-4.0-amd64:multimedia-4.0-noarch:multimedia-4.1-amd64:multimedia-4.1-noarch:printing-3.2-amd64:printing-3.2-noarch:printing-4.0-amd64:printing-4.0-noarch:printing-4.1-amd64:printing-4.1-noarch:qt4-3.1-amd64:qt4-3.1-noarch:security-4.0-amd64:security-4.0-noarch:security-4.1-amd64:security-4.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

I'm going to install the Vivid kernel so that the reboot to fix this current annoyance is at least worthwhile!

[Stani S (stanisztuk)]

Same issue. Suddently there is no response to CTRL+ALT+t . Occurs a few times a week.
CTRL + ALT + F1-12 is working.

Restarting solves the issue.

Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS

[JaSauders (jasauders)]

Same issue here. Doesn't seem fixed. I have the same issue with other Ctrl related shortcuts, like my custom shortcuts Ctrl Alt 7, Ctrl Alt 8, etc. Logging out and back in fixes it but that's hardly a suitable workaround when the missing shortcuts are only realized after you're already neck deep in work. It just seems tied to that Ctrl key, Ctrl Alt T included with terminal, though certain shortcuts are seemingly exempt, such as window management shortcuts, I.e. Ctrl Super left/right arrow or Ctrl Alt up/down arrow, etc.

14.04.2

[Claus Lensbøl (cmol)]

So this is weird. When I do aliases in my ~/.zshrc this bug occurs, but removing the aliases will get the terminal shortcut back...

Aliases that breaks things for me:
alias dokku='$HOME/.dokku/contrib/dokku_client.sh'
alias fpm='firefox --ProfileManager'

I have no clue as to why these issues are connected.

[diman (altukhovstudy)]

Same issue for me. I have ubuntu 15.04. And from time to time I get not only ctrl+alt+t disabled but also my layout switching shortcut (I use super+space) and volume control on "fn + up arrow" and "fn + down arrow" get missing. All the other shortcuts seem to work fine. "sudo service lightdm restart" gets it fixed.

[François Poyer (francois-poyer)]

Same issue here. Using 15.04 for the past few weeks (migrated from 14.10, migrated from 14.04), everything worked perfectly. Then this morning, upon booting, Ctrl + Alrt + T didn't work. Neither did any of the "function" shortcuts of my laptop ( fn+ F5 and fn + F6 for Sound Up/Down, etc).
Restarting lightdm with "sudo service lightdm restart" fixed it for now.

[Mike (michael-vm)]

I can confirm that this is still a problem with 15.04. Had Xorg crash, rebooted and now Ctrl+Alt+T doesn't work.

[Jonatan Zeidler (jonius)]

I can confirm this issue for 15.10. As some people before mentioned, FN+Vol Up/Down and FN+Brightness UP/DOWN don't work either.

[Marco Ceresa (ceresa)]

Same here, fresh new installation Ubuntu 15.10.
Ctrl + Alt - t does not work despite being configured properly in the shortcuts config panel.

[jared dicioccio (jared-dicioccio)]

Still happens to me on 15.04, on my laptop and my HTPC.

[zorgoth (freepskov)]

This is still happening to me on a fully updated 14.04 on my Macbook.

[zorgoth (freepskov)]

It clearly isn't fixed - over 15 people have posted that it is still happening to them. Can we please reopen this bug?

[zorgoth (freepskov)]

Can also confirm that Ctrl-Alt-T not working appears to be associated with the volume keys not working. It is however not a bug in gnome-terminal. I can't run any command using Ctrl-Alt-T.

[Jorge Gustavo (jgr)]

Still happens on:
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty
The shortkeys works almost all the time. But sometimes, it does not work.

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Please from a terminal run unity with:
  UNITY_LOG_SEVERITY="<root>error;unity.key.gnome.grabber=debug" compiz --replace

And paste the log you get here, also when pressing the multimedia keys or Ctrl+Alt+T

[bangkokguy (laszlo-g-gergely)]

I tried to do what you mentioned Marco, but the result was a system crash which even corrupted my BIOS too...

[Marco Ceresa (ceresa)]

I found what it seems to be a breakthrough on this issue. I hope it does not only relate to my case.

I use a Colemak layout. Compared to the standard QWERTY, in Colemak the T is where the F is in QWERTY, and where T is in QWERTY Colemak has a G. See http://colemak.com/wiki/images/e/ef/Colemak_fingers.png for a visual comparison.

Well, what do you know? ctrl-alt-t does not work, but ctrl-alt-g (which is the qwerty shortcut for ctrl-alt-t) behaves as expected, firing up the terminal.

It looks like the package responsible for the CTRL-ALT-T shortcut still uses the default keyboard layout, not picking up the new layout (Colemak in my case) at startup. Perhaps a loading order bug?

Can you guys test it and see if that's the case for you too?

[Philipp Wrann (philippwrann)]

Same issue here.

Ubuntu 15.04, german keyboard layout

It didnt happen the first half year but ever again since then. May be some regression that slipped in?

[Max Waterman (b-ubuntuone)]

I see this problem in 16.04 after upgrading from 15.10.

[fcole90 (fcole90)]

Experiencing this problem in 16.04. Let me know if I can help with debugging

[XiongZhang (xiong-y-zhang)]

HI, Max
   Have your fixed this issue by adding a symlink like you do in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1577760 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1575261 ?

[Ken Wagner (beaucoder)]

Experienced this problem after accidental Super + P combo.

Now, no more volume Up or Down and Ctrl + Alt + T is recast as duplicate tab in FireFox or if FireFox is not running nothing happens.

Bizarre and very, very frustrating.

How to fix?

Thanks Ken Wagner

[Ken Wagner (beaucoder)]

Oops! Running Ubuntu 14.04.4.

Ken Wagner

[Mark Tomich (mstomich)]

@ceresa regarding comment 33; I am using a dvorak keyboard, and just verified what you're seeing. Furthermore, mapping CTRL+ALT+K (qwerty K is Dvorak T) to the terminal shortcut does the trick.

[Dawid Laszuk (laszukdawid)]

Any progress on this? It's quite annoying bug.

[Philipp Wrann (philippwrann)]

This also affects me (running ubuntu 16.04.2)

Remapping the shortcut for the command to some other combination does not work either.

I had this bug for a long time, then deactivated the shortcut and created my own shortcut to open a new terminal. That worked for a while but did stop to work a few days ago.

Last kernel upgrade was 4.10.0-30-generic