bziman
April 4th, 2009, 11:13 PM
The topic of super keys has been discussed at painful length, usually with someone wanting to use Super as a modifier like Shift or Alt. That's NOT what I'm trying to do. In Gutsy (and for many, many years -- since Warty), I had Super_L launch the default browser, Ctrl-Super_L launch the default terminal, and Alt-Super_L launch the default mail client. These were configured using the Preferences / Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. Worked fine.
In a clean installation of Intrepid, I am able to use the Keyboard Shortcuts to create the same configuration. I know the keyboard is configured properly, because when I go to set the key, Super_L appears exactly like I expect it to.
However! Only Ctrl-Super_L works (launches a terminal). The plain Super_L and the Alt-Super_L shortcuts do not work. I have tried binding them to other actions, which does not work, and I have tried binding other keys to these actions, which do work.
I've read that compiz can interfere with it because it expects the Super key to be a modifier (which is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard!) -- but I have compiz disabled. I did install the compiz configuration manager, to make sure that there weren't any compiz shortcuts that use the Super key as a modifier, as some forums imply that could cause the behaviour to break. I didn't see any such shortcuts. And anyway, why would it cause a problem with Alt-Super_L but not Ctrl-Super_L?
This leads me to believe that some part of the system (metacity, x.org, whatever) is eating my Super_L.
Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone else got a fix for this? I'm afraid that "sucking it up" (common advice) and learning to use an additional key for my most frequent three tasks is out of the question. It worked correctly for years, and now does not, so there's got to be something that changed, and that can be fixed.
Thanks,
Brian
In a clean installation of Intrepid, I am able to use the Keyboard Shortcuts to create the same configuration. I know the keyboard is configured properly, because when I go to set the key, Super_L appears exactly like I expect it to.
However! Only Ctrl-Super_L works (launches a terminal). The plain Super_L and the Alt-Super_L shortcuts do not work. I have tried binding them to other actions, which does not work, and I have tried binding other keys to these actions, which do work.
I've read that compiz can interfere with it because it expects the Super key to be a modifier (which is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard!) -- but I have compiz disabled. I did install the compiz configuration manager, to make sure that there weren't any compiz shortcuts that use the Super key as a modifier, as some forums imply that could cause the behaviour to break. I didn't see any such shortcuts. And anyway, why would it cause a problem with Alt-Super_L but not Ctrl-Super_L?
This leads me to believe that some part of the system (metacity, x.org, whatever) is eating my Super_L.
Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone else got a fix for this? I'm afraid that "sucking it up" (common advice) and learning to use an additional key for my most frequent three tasks is out of the question. It worked correctly for years, and now does not, so there's got to be something that changed, and that can be fixed.
Thanks,
Brian