KDE keybindings

ralvez · 2009-03-13 23:41:38

I have had a problem with key binding since KDE 4.2 ... but I have been avoiding dealing with it for awhile
Today ,however, I decided to tackle the problem but I've come out empty handed ... sort of

The problem:
I use xbindkeys for my keyboard key settings. It has worked flawlessly for years but it broke with KDE 4.2; now Mod + E (which used to open Dolphin/Konqueror) refuses to work, it is just ignored. My Meida key (used to load Amarok) does not respond either. Interestingly enough if I press the Home key (Firefox browser) it works fine and same with the Mail key.
After much testing I found that some of the key definitions in xbindkeysrc are ignored because KDE has it own key mappings.

Partial Solution:
I noticed that I can use KDE 4.2 to bind keys so I used it to link Mod + E to start Dolphin. That works fine but there are other keys where it fails. For instance if I try to use KDE's interface to map my Media key it complaints that that key is not supported in QT ?!

Conclusions:

KDE 4.2 is intercepting all key presses and if it has an internal definition for them it will give preference to its own internal environment to handle the event; for some keys (Home, Mail) it seems not to have one but it recognizes the key so it allows the definitions in xbindkeysrc to take over and for keys it does not recognize it just plain fails (Media).

Am I the only person with the problem or is this a known bug? Since I've seen the problem in at least 3 different machines I'm sure I cannot be alone on this one, yet I see no postings in the forums (!??)...

If anyone has found a practical solution to "force" xbindkeysrc to be read with preference to KDE's internal key bindings I'd love to hear how to fix the problem.

R.

Mogger · 2009-03-14 08:29:07

ralvez wrote:

For instance if I try to use KDE's interface to map my Media key it complaints that that key is not supported in QT ?!

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=182672

I have lots of problems with shortcuts in KDE 4.2.x, partially because I switch between QWERTY and Dvorak. However, xbindkeys works flawlessly for me. Does it work if you use the raw keycodes instead (e.g. m:0x5 + c:58)?

ralvez · 2009-03-14 15:50:03

Thanks for the reply.
It works in part only.
Using the key codes (instead of XF86names) seems to only work for keys that are recognized and NOT mapped by KDE 4.2
For instance the "calculator" key will happily get kcalc open with the definitions used in xbindkeys but keys like volume up, volume down, mute only work via KDE's KMix and the definitions I made are 100% ignored.

I'll continue to research the problem. It's gotta be a way to disable KDE's keyboard key binding and define our own ... at the end of the day we are running Linux although, some times (like when dealing with this problem) it has the same unpleasant feel of "that other" operating system where you are stack with what you got.

R.

Mogger · 2009-03-14 17:05:27

If you want to disable all global* kde shortcuts, you can stop the khotkeys service in System Settings. At least I think it only affects global hotkeys - I haven't tried myself. You can probably also do something like editing ~/.kde4/share/config/kglobalshortcutsrc if you want to disable the hotkeys.

Last edited by Mogger (2009-03-14 17:05:41)

ralvez · 2009-03-14 18:33:33

@Mogger,

I did disabled khotkeys but nothing changed. In one of my tests I found that QT seems to be part of the problem. It complaints that "The key you just pressed is not supported by QT" ... !!?
I'm not trying to get QT to do anything, so it must be that keystrokes and key presses are sent to a QT interpreter of some kind before they are processed. This even happens in the khotkeys menu. Just select something there and try to change the key to some of the multimedia keys in you keyboard and you may be able to see what I mean.

I think that this intercepting of the keys is where the "real" problem is.

R.

Wilco · 2009-03-15 10:11:46

This might be related:

When I tried so set Ctrl+Shift+Tab to "Switch to previous desktop" this didn't work in KDE 4.2. Shift+Tab was encoded to "backtab" but KDE didn't understand this!?!. I had to change Backtab to Shift+Backtab to make it work. Anyway I fixed some shortkey issues by manually editing: ~/.kde4/share/config/kglobalshortcutsrc
Maybe this can help you use those unsupported keys too

ralvez · 2009-03-15 15:11:30

@Wilco,

Yes, I'll give that a try, Mogger also mentioned the same thing.

Thanks!

R.

Last edited by ralvez (2009-03-15 15:12:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-13 23:41:38

KDE keybindings

#2 2009-03-14 08:29:07

Re: KDE keybindings

#3 2009-03-14 15:50:03

Re: KDE keybindings

#4 2009-03-14 17:05:27

Re: KDE keybindings

#5 2009-03-14 18:33:33

Re: KDE keybindings

#6 2009-03-15 10:11:46

Re: KDE keybindings

#7 2009-03-15 15:11:30

Re: KDE keybindings

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