Keyboard shortcuts stop working; restarting unity-settings-daemon doesn't fix it

[Michał Sawicz]

All the global keyboard shortcuts (volume, media, ctrl+alt+t for terminal etc.) handled by unity-settings-daemon stop working somewhat randomly.

Restarting unity-settings-daemon does not help, the only way to get them back is restarting unity (which roughly equals to restarting the whole session).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: unity-settings-daemon 15.04.1+15.04.20150408-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-18.18-generic 3.19.6
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu May 28 10:37:03 2015
SourcePackage: unity-settings-daemon
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Matthias Laumer (matthias-laumer)]

This problem also affects me (but with 14.04).

If it happens not only the system shortcuts like "Ctrl+Alt+T" does not work ... also my custom keybinding which i have definded stopp working until I reboot once or twice.

My Workarround so far:
Install ccsm, and deactivate the "commands" and the "gnome-compatibility".
After that I got no further problems with the key-bindungs. Maybe someone can confirm this or make use of it.

[Matthias Laumer (matthias-laumer)]

Have to correct myself in #4 , no luck with only changing ccsm Settings like mentioned.

Interesting Information: I ´ve tried to workarround with xbindkeys... directelly after starting xbindkeys, all definded keys are working correctelly, after a while, sometimes after hibernate the keys stop working again (but xbindkeys is still running), if I kill xbindkeys in this stage and restart it, it is working probably again.

Dont know if this Information is usefull or not....

[Felix Eckhofer (eckhofer)]

Running `unity &` in a Terminal seems to fix this problem for me when it happens.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.3.2+15.10.20151002.2-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.3.2+15.10.20151002.2-0ubuntu1) wily; urgency=medium

  * GnomeKeyGrabber: Don't allow an action to be grabbed multiple times
    (LP: #1459571)
  * PanelService, DBusIndicators: drop support for EntryShowNowChanged
    signal

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <[e-mail]> Fri, 02 Oct 2015 14:02:10 +0000

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

This is not fixed at all!

It keeps happening, on 16.04

[Colin Law (colin-law)]

@teo1978 This particular bug has been fixed. If it is still happening to you then it must be a different cause, so the best thing is to report a new bug.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

> This particular bug has been fixed.

This particular bug is described as "All the global keyboard shortcuts (volume, media, ctrl+alt+t for terminal etc.) handled by u-s-d stop working somewhat randomly" and this is precisely what is still happening to me.
The issue that was fixed, which was believed to be the only cause of the bug as described, evidently wasn't. So unless you change the description to be more specific, "this particular bug" is still not completely fixed.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

Actually there seems to be a difference in my case: restarting unity-settings-daemon does make the keys and shortcuts work again. I'll edit the description and file a new bug.