Alt-Backtick Keyboard Shortcut Can Not Be Disabled

[cmcginty]

The 'Alt-Backtick' shortcut for the app switcher is interfering with my other applications. How can I disable this without disabling all of Unity?

The Atl-Backtick key combination is commonly used in Emacs, Emacs is rendered unusable with Unity intercepting this key combo.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

* Is this reproducible?
* If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

* Is this reproducible?

Yes, press Alt-Backtick key combination. It will display the task-switcher dialog.

* If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

On the keyboard press, Alt-Backtick to reproduce.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

sorry but I am not able to understand what you want to say. pressing alt+backtick would switch tabs in chromium and wont do anything in another app. Can you record a video of the problem?

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

That is very strange, cause I get the same results on two systems now. When you press Alt-backtick, make sure you hold Alt key for about 2 seconds, then hold backtick (`).

Also another way to see the key press is by doing:

Alt-Tab, continue holding Alt key, release Tab, then press Backtick key. You will see that the switcher response by replacing the application icon in the switcher, with a preview of the application window.

If you still need confirmation after this, I can try an do a video.

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

Here is a better description of the "feature" ... http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/08/visual-rundown-oneiric-update-11-10-unity-software-centre-icon/

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

Workaround for this bug:

The Alt+` (i.e. Alt+Grave and Alt+Backtick) shortcut settings is stored at:

    CompizConfig Settings Manager -> Desktop :: Ubuntu Unity Plugin -> Switcher -> "Key to flip through windows in the switcher"

From my testing, there is no way to disable the shortcuts. Part of the bug is that the key combination box will show "Disabled" but actually the default key combination is still set, IT IS NOT DISABLED.

Since you can't disable it, you can re-map it. So what I did was remap "Key to flip through windows in the switcher" to Alt-Shift-Super-A, so it will not bother me anymore.

I hope that solves your problem, as it did with me.

[Andrius Chamentauskas (sinsiliux)]

Also wanted to add that you can disable keyboard shortcut after you remap it and it will not bother anymore. Not sure through if it's the fault of keys chosen for shortcut or some bug that shows this as disabled even though it's enabled.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Dmitry Sidorenko (ushkinaz)]

@casey-mcginty, thanks for workaround, this bug annoyed me for a long time.

[Denis Konstantinov (linvinus)]

for unity-2d/gnome-classic same settings avaylable in gconf path /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_group

[Blake Williams (shabbyrobe)]

This bug is still occurring. The existence of a workaround does not mean it is fixed and it should not have been expired.

[Andy Somogyi (andy-somogyi)]

This problem still exists in 13.04. Neither the standard System Setting - Keyboard - Keyboard Shortcuts, nor Unity Tweak Tool provide an option for disabling Alt-Backtick

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

I found a workaround. Uninstall Unity and replace with something better.

[Ben Northway (northben)]

The workaround in #6 worked for me, but it is still a bug!

[Alan Hensley (alan-e-hensley)]

This bug is still present in 13.10.

The Alt-Grave shortcut is captured by Unity and cannot be removed from the System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts dialog or the Unity Tweak Tool. This prevents other applications from using the shortcut (RubyMine, for example).

[Sindisil (greg-jandl)]

This interferes with the IntelliJ IDEA shortcut to bring up the VCS quick menu. I'd really appreciate a way to disable the system's use of this shortcut. Confirmed that it's still an issue in 13.10.

[Andrius Chamentauskas (sinsiliux)]

I can't believe this is still open... It's gotten even worse in 14.04 since the workaround by casey-mcginty doesn't work anymore

[Denis Konstantinov (linvinus)]

i succsesfully disable alt+grave binding in Ubuntu 14.04
follow this guides

http://askubuntu.com/questions/175696/why-isnt-the-alt-shortcut-working-on-my-international-keyboard/476722
http://askubuntu.com/questions/175696/why-isnt-the-alt-shortcut-working-on-my-international-keyboard/476722#476722
http://askubuntu.com/questions/122209/how-do-i-modify-or-disable-the-huds-use-of-the-alt-key

[Kevin Choi (code-kchoi)]

It seems like duplicate issue affects cinnamon (gnome fork) desktop as well.

[Kevin Choi (code-kchoi)]

Workaround is editting switcher in application using dconf-editor in cinnamon and gnome. Small bug is that it is not showing on the all settings->keyboard->shortcuts

[Tessa (unit3)]

I've found on 14.10, if you enable the shortcut in CCSM and then disable it, that effectively disables it. However, I've also found each distro release re-enables this annoying shortcut, even if it's marked as disabled.

This speaks to underlying issues in the Compiz keyboard shortcuts system, or in how Ubuntu is deploying the unity prefs. Something here isn't respecting user prefs on upgrade, and isn't correctly representing the current settings in the settings interface.

[Dustin (a-dev)]

This is indeed worse in 14.+, old thread but still an issue.

I cannot remap or disable this shortcut at all. There are several over shortcuts I've had similar issues so I do agree that there seems to be some issues in the Compiz unity plugin.

dconf-edit does nothing to fix the problem and even shows that the shortcut has changed.

[Ryszard (ryszard-zielinski)]

The workaround it to do the following

http://askubuntu.com/questions/464221/how-do-i-disable-systems-altgrave-on-14-04

-open up a terminal run dconf-editor
-then navigate to org > gnome > desktop > wm > keybindings
-find the ['<Super>Above_Tab', '<Alt>Above_Tab']
-and set it to ['disabled']
-then it should free up that binding for you to use else where.

[Alex Baggott (alex-baggott)]

As part of the big bug review for 16.04 LTS I have tested this on 15.10 and the bug is still there.

As stated in #6, the "Key to flip through windows in the Switcher" button appears as "Disabled", but is actually enabled.

[prokher (prokher)]

Guys,

is there viable workaround? I am tired of dropping "Key to flip through windows in the switcher" to some new value each time system restarts. I use Guake console and bind it to "Alt+Grave" but this hotkey is acquired by damn Switcher each time system restarts no matter how it is configured. I mean, even when I explicitly set another hotkey to the action "Key to flip through windows in the switcher" it binds "Alt+Grave" after reboot. Since I use static application switcher it would be fine to just disable this default unity switcher, but I can not find how. This bug bothers me for several years already, please, give me some workaround.

[prokher (prokher)]

I do not think that it is a duplicate of bug #1113420, it looks like, but it is not. Alt+grave can be reassigned. But it simply does not work. This looks like the bug in the unity Switcher which simply ignores its configuration settings at startup.

[David Chalmers (dchalmers)]

Agreed not a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1113420.
The bug here seems to be in the Settings->Keyboard applet or whatever underlying data structures populate it.
Specifically - on my 16.10, the entries for Navigation->Switch Applications appears as 'Disabled' (should say 'Alt-Tab', shouldn't it?) and Navigation->Switch windows of an App directly' appears as 'Disabled' (should say 'Alt-`).

If these populated correctly, I would assume they could be modified/disabled. The second of which would resolve this bug.