Ubuntu
metacity package

  1. Bug #642792
  2. Comment #8

Comment 8 for bug 642792

Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote : Re: ALT+PrtSc not recognised

This is not a kernel bug at all. Alt+PrintScreen has a pre-existing meaning, which is "SysRq", as printed on the keycaps of nearly all PC keyboards. SysRq is not an appropriate keybinding for taking screenshots of a window. This is a bug in the keymaps, not in the kernel.

> 1) Disable SysRq handling by default. This is a simple 1 line change by
> adding "kernel.sysrq = 0" to /etc/sysctl.conf . Those then wanting to
> enable SysRq handling can do so by either "echo 1 >
> /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq" or "sysctl -w kernel.sysrq=1"

This has the result that the screenshotting behavior on the desktop varies according to whether Magic SysRq is enabled or not in the kernel. That's not appropriate either. GNOME needs to just pick a default keybinding that hasn't already been spoken for by the kernel for the past 15 years.

Reassigning this to gnome-settings-daemon, which is responsible for this shortcut.