Hardcoded Unity shortcuts responsible for several problems

[MC Return]

1. All the hardcoded Unity shortcuts (like Alt+Space, Ctrl+Tab or Super+Tab for example) are not shared with Compiz and the CCSM, so it is possible to double-bind the same keycombinations already used by Unity to other functions without CCSM even showing a warning about it...

2. There are conflicts with hardcoded Unity keycombinations, which are still adjustable via CCSM.
Example: You are unable to change the shortcut for the Window Menu (Alt+Space), although the option is there (CCSM->General->Key Bindings->Window Menu)
Changing the shortcut to anything else makes it snap back to Alt+Space. It is not possible to change the Mouse-shortcut, nor to use Alt+Button3 (Alt+rightMouseButton) for anything else than showing the window menu. Disabling the shortcut is also not possible.

3. If one can not assign hardcoded keybindings/key-mousebindings to anything else and is not able to disable them either, and one wants to use any program that utilizes the same keycombinations/key-mousecombinations (e.g. a game), it would not be possible to play it, because it would always bring up the hardcoded functions, no matter what...
Examples: Alt+Space will always bring up the window menu (window accessibility), Alt+Button3 (RMB) also

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

1 isn't an issue, since Ctrl+Space and Ctrl+Tab aren't Unity shortcuts. Points 2 and 3 are still valid though.

[MC Return (mc-return)]

bilalakhtar, Ctrl+Space was a typo, I was meant to write Alt+Space, which is corrected now.
I would not consider this bugreport to be category "wishlist" as those are quite major bugs I am describing here:

Code-wise you can find those problems in unityshell.cpp, line 2990ff and in StandaloneShortcuts.cpp - you can find stuff like that there:

StandaloneShortcuts.cpp, line 41ff:
  // FIXME: Implemstd::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(ent it...
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Launcher"), "", "", _("Switch application via Launcher."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, "Super + Tab")));

line 53ff:
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Dash"), "", "", _("Switches between Lenses."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, "Ctrl + Tab")));
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Dash"), "", "", _("Moves the focus."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, _("Cursor Keys"))));
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Dash"), "", "", _("Open currently focused item."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, _("Enter / Return"))));

line 59ff (Note: Alt is not hardcoded anymore):
  // Is it really std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(hard coded?
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Menu Bar"), "", "", _("Reveals application menu."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, "Alt")));

line 62:
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Menu Bar"), "", "", _("Moves focus between indicators."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, _("Cursor Left & Right"))));

line 68:
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Switching"), "", "", _("Moves the focus."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, _("Cursor Left & Right"))));

line 72ff:
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Workspaces"), "", "", _("Switch workspaces."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, _("Cursor Keys"))));
  //hints.push_bacstd::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(k(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Workspaces"), "", "", _("Move focused window to other workspace."), ...)

line 78ff:
  // I don't know std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(if it is really hardcoded, but I can't find where this option is stored.
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Windows"), "", "", _("Open window accessibility menu."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, "Alt+Space")));

line 85:
  hints.push_back(std::shared_ptr<shortcut::AbstractHint>(new shortcut::MockHint(_("Windows"), "", "", _("Places window in corresponding positions."), shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION, "Ctrl + Alt + Num")));

[Brandon Schaefer (brandontschaefer)]

I think this might be a compiz problem. As unity doesn't use the General options....soo Im adding compiz to this.

[MC Return (mc-return)]

A small part of this has already been fixed, for example you now can configure the shortcut "Alt+Space" to show the window-menu without it snapping back.

A few hardcoded shortcuts are still left - I am listing those here to have them summarized in one place:

Dash:

                                                    _("Switches between Lenses."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Ctrl + Tab")));

                                                    _("Moves the focus."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Arrow Keys")));

                                                    _("Opens the currently focused item."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Enter")));

Menu bar:

                                                    _("Reveals the application menu."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    "Alt"));

                                                    _("Moves focus between indicators."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Cursor Left or Right")));

Switching:

                                                    _("Moves the focus."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Cursor Left or Right")));

Windows:

                                                    _("Places the window in corresponding position."),
                                                    shortcut::HARDCODED_OPTION,
                                                    _("Ctrl + Alt + Num")));

[MC Return (mc-return)]

I had to change the title, because it does not reflect the most important problems and pointed to the one problem that already has been fixed.

[IRIE Shinsuke (irie)]

Alt+RMB is very important shortcut in Blender, so Unity is still useless for me (and Blender users)... Please fix it!

[MC Return (mc-return)]

@irie: The possibility to change Alt+RMB or remove this shortcut completely has already been fixed in trunk. Which version of Compiz/Unity/Ubuntu are you using ?

The fix has been merged into lp:unity @ revision 2664, please see here: https://code.launchpad.net/~mc-return/unity/unity.merge.fix-hardcoded-keys-part1/+merge/121545

The fix is available in the unity-team staging PPA for Quantal and Raring: https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/staging

I am not sure, if/when it gets backported to stable Precise/Quantal Unity versions.

[IRIE Shinsuke (irie)]

@mc-return:

Thanks for letting me know! Will test it later.

I'm using:

Ubuntu quantal + quantal-updates + quantal-backports
Unity 6.10.0-0ubuntu2
Compiz 1:0.9.8.4+bzr3407-0ubuntu1

[Vaclav Cermak (disnel)]

I have this problem "sometimes" with 12.10. I noticed, that shortcuts for window moving and resizing are bad as well when this bug is "active" (I have mapped initiate window move a resize window to Super+mouse button, it sometimes switches to Alt+mouse button). When I tried to change "Initiate window move" to Super+LMB in CCSM, the problem with Alt+RMB disappeared as well.

[IRIE Shinsuke (irie)]

I moved to Ubuntu 13.04, but Alt+RMB still is not configurable...

unity: 6.12.0daily13.03.13.1-0ubuntu1
compiz: 1:0.9.9~daily13.03.08-0ubuntu1

[darklight_ (clod)]

With the next LTS release coming up and being the last bundle unity7 I think it's time to resurrect this bug and find a proper solution to either make the shortctus costumizable or at least to disable the hardcoded ones, the latter of which shouldn't be too hard.

MC Return could you provide a status update ?