Remap the "Windows" key to open Gnome Terminal.

[KittyCatHerder]

I spent 15 minutes searching the forum for an answer to this question but did not find one. Perhaps I don't quite understand how the search system here works. Anyway, I'm trying to map my Windows key to open Gnome Terminal. I have done this before in another Ubuntu 11.10 based OS but I do not remember how, and I haven't been able to find exact instructions by searchign the internet. I guess I would just have to remap the key to "ctrl+alt+T" but I can't seem to find the way. I'm sure someone else has done this before and it should be pretty simple, right?

[KittyCatHerder]

Can no one help me? I have been searching far and wide, trying all kinds of suggestions I found on the internet, installed several pieces of software including xbindkeys which didn't work. There is another piece of software that promises to allow me to map my windows key to open terminal but it is something like 372 megabytes and I'm running a 60GB SSD.

I can't believe it is so difficult to figure out how to remap a single key to run a single command in Ubuntu 12.04!!!!!

[Vaphell]

may i ask why you want to sacrifice usability of the whole environment for the trivial thing that has perfectly usable key combo already? WIN is the master key in unity, not yet another unimportant key you can just override.

[Slim Odds]

may i ask why you want to sacrifice usability of the whole environment for the trivial thing that has perfectly usable key combo already? WIN is the master key in unity, not yet another unimportant key you can just override.

+1

[CaptainMark]

I think since gnome3 the win key is considered a modifier key for shortcuts and can't be used on its own as a standalone keyboard shortcut

[Stonecold1995]

may i ask why you want to sacrifice usability of the whole environment for the trivial thing that has perfectly usable key combo already? WIN is the master key in unity, not yet another unimportant key you can just override.

Is it the same on KDE? If not, I've been looking for the same thing as OP (except I want it to open KickOff).

[KittyCatHerder]

may i ask why you want to sacrifice usability of the whole environment for the trivial thing that has perfectly usable key combo already? WIN is the master key in unity, not yet another unimportant key you can just override.

I don't run Unity and the Super key does nothing on its own. On the contrary, I won't be sacrificing any usability. I will be reducing three key strokes using two hands to one key stroke.

[KittyCatHerder]

I think since gnome3 the win key is considered a modifier key for shortcuts and can't be used on its own as a standalone keyboard shortcut

Surely with an open source OS there is a way to change the software so that the Super key can be used as a stand alone short cut key! Given that maybe it's something I won't want to do once I learn the other things that that will be caused by changing whatever needs to be changed in order for it to work but I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Do you think it makes any difference that I don't run Gnome 3? I'm using Gnome Classic.

[coldcritter64]

I don't run Unity and the Super key does nothing on its own. On the contrary, I won't be sacrificing any usability. I will be reducing three key strokes using two hands to one key stroke.

What DE are you using ? Gnome classic, d'oh

On non Unity / Gnome-shell installs it may be possible via System settings > Keyboard > Keyboard shorcuts tab, and assign a custom key setting for the Super key (Windows key) to utilise the command "gnome-terminal".

[KittyCatHerder]

Is it the same on KDE? If not, I've been looking for the same thing as OP (except I want it to open KickOff).

I have found a technique for changing the key bindings so that you can cause a key combination to run a command. It has worked for me yet but I'm not sure why. Maybe, as another post in this thread suggests, the Super key can not be used as a stand alone short cut key in envnments newer than Gnome 2.

Anyway, running gksudo gconf-editor and navigating to the /apps/metacity/global_keybindings, you can edit the value field of one of the ten empty run_command_X entries to reflect the keys/key combos that you want to use, and then navigate to the corresponding keybinding_commands field and change the value to whatever command invokes the process that you want to run.

Like I said, this hasn't worked for me yet but I suspect I'm doing something wrong. Maybe it hasn't worked because the Super key can't be mapped as a stand alone short cut key in environments after Gnome 3. I will add more information as I get it.