how do you make the keyboard shortcuts work? (FC4)

[Tim]

Hi,

Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.  I can
do something like change the print screen shortcut to also require the
shift key to be pressed, but if I wanted to add a shortcut for something
to open the web browser, for instance, nothing happens.  Same goes for
things like volume controls, log out, etc.  Is there some trick to this?

I can see it accepting the keys, so the keyboard does actually do
something when I press the keys I've picked (extra function keys on a
fancy keyboard).  For example, I've tried the following, ineffectually:

Launch help browser <Shift><Control>w  (original setting, but does nothing)
Log out 0xdf (does nothing)
Lock screen <Control>Break (does nothing)
Search 0xe5 (does nothing)
E-mail 0xec (does nothing)
Launch web browser 0xb2 (does nothing)
... panel run app ... <Alt>F2 (this works)
Show panel menu <Alt>F1 (this works)
Take screenshot <Shift>Print (this works)
Run a terminal 0xeb (does nothing)

and so on...  Trying common keyboard keys, like control with F keys
doesn't work, for the above ones I've tried the extra special keys,
either.

[Richard E Miles]

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:12:28 +0930
Tim  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
> program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.  I can
> do something like change the print screen shortcut to also require the
> shift key to be pressed, but if I wanted to add a shortcut for something
> to open the web browser, for instance, nothing happens.  Same goes for
> things like volume controls, log out, etc.  Is there some trick to this?
>
> I can see it accepting the keys, so the keyboard does actually do
> something when I press the keys I've picked (extra function keys on a
> fancy keyboard).  For example, I've tried the following, ineffectually:
>
> Launch help browser <Shift><Control>w  (original setting, but does nothing)
> Log out 0xdf (does nothing)
> Lock screen <Control>Break (does nothing)
> Search 0xe5 (does nothing)
> E-mail 0xec (does nothing)
> Launch web browser 0xb2 (does nothing)
> ... panel run app ... <Alt>F2 (this works)
> Show panel menu <Alt>F1 (this works)
> Take screenshot <Shift>Print (this works)
> Run a terminal 0xeb (does nothing)
>
> and so on...  Trying common keyboard keys, like control with F keys
> doesn't work, for the above ones I've tried the extra special keys,
> either.

I tried some of the commands you mentioned with keyboard shortcuts and they work
for me. Of course these only work for the keyboard activities that are available
in the menu. You click on the entry, then enter the key combination you want, and
it works. This is for the keyboard shortcuts from the Desktop preferences keyboard selection. If you want to use your own activity for example a keyboard
shortcut for the eject command you have to select from the applications system tools configuration editor gui application. Select apps metacity global_keybindings to enter the shortcut then from the keyboard-commands selection enter the actual command to launch (ie eject).

Hope this helps.

Tim  wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
> > program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.  I can
> > do something like change the print screen shortcut to also require the
> > shift key to be pressed, but if I wanted to add a shortcut for something
> > to open the web browser, for instance, nothing happens.  Same goes for
> > things like volume controls, log out, etc.  Is there some trick to this?

You might want to give this a try:

http://darkknight9.blogspot.com/2005/08/custom-keybinding-gnome.html

-M

[Tim]

Tim:
> > > Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
> > > program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.

Mostafa Z. Afgani:
> You might want to give this a try:
>
> http://darkknight9.blogspot.com/2005/08/custom-keybinding-gnome.html

Hmm, similar to something else I looked at (also explained using xev to
see what codes occur when you press a key), expanding a bit on something
I was curious about though not quite enough (whether you need to provide
a label for some keys, or you can just plonk 0xa4 into the shortcut
editor).  It now looks like I might have to do that extra step.

If so, I wonder if there's some way I cam set up a custom keymap for my
keyboard (some Labtech Y-RAC66 thing not in the list of keyboards),
label it sensibly, and leave it somewhere on the net for the next poor
victim.

[Tim]

Ttim:
> > Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
> > program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.
> >
> > For example, I've tried the following, ineffectually:
> >
> > Launch help browser <Shift><Control>w  (original setting, but does nothing)
> > E-mail 0xec (does nothing)
> > Take screenshot <Shift>Print (this works)
> > Run a terminal 0xeb (does nothing)

Richard E Miles:
> I tried some of the commands you mentioned with keyboard shortcuts and
> they work for me. Of course these only work for the keyboard
> activities that are available in the menu.

By menu, do you mean the options in that configuration program?  Such as
some of the ones I listed.

Desktop:  log out, sleep, search, e-mail, launch web browser, run a
terminal, all do nothing.  None of the sound category items do anything.

I notice that some of these entries don't seem to have a corresponding
entry in the gconf-editor mentioned below.
> You click on the entry, then enter the key combination you want, and
> it works. This is for the keyboard shortcuts from the Desktop
> preferences keyboard selection.

Not for me...  :-(  Only a few of them work.
> If you want to use your own activity for example a keyboard
> shortcut for the eject command you have to select from the
> applications system tools configuration editor gui application. Select
> apps metacity global_keybindings to enter the shortcut then from the
> keyboard-commands selection enter the actual command to launch (ie
> eject).

Do you mean "keybinding_commands" rather than keyboard-commands?  That
was the other thing I tried.  For instance:

gconf-editor 2.10.0:
...
gthumb
metacity
   general
   global_keybindings
     run_command_2      F7
   keybinding_commands
     command_2          xmms     
   window_keybindings
   workspace_names
mini-commander
...

That appears to work.  Though still doesn't help me with one or two
useful buttons on this keyboard (e.g. un/mute the sound, volume
up/down).

[Tony Nelson]

At 10:37 PM +0930 9/29/05, Tim wrote:
 ...
> That appears to work.  Though still doesn't help me with one or two
> useful buttons on this keyboard (e.g. un/mute the sound, volume
> up/down).

"Mute" isn't all it's cracked up to be.  For me, it just sets the volume to
0, and there is no "Unmute", only the volume up.  (On my keyboard there are
no volume and mute buttons, so I use the otherwise useless Search,
Favorites, and Web/Home.)
____________________________________________________________________
TonyN.:'                       
      '                              http://www.georgeanelson.com/

[Tim]

Tim wrote:
> > That appears to work.  Though still doesn't help me with one or two
> > useful buttons on this keyboard (e.g. un/mute the sound, volume
> > up/down).

Tony Nelson:
> "Mute" isn't all it's cracked up to be.  For me, it just sets the volume to
> 0, and there is no "Unmute", only the volume up.  (On my keyboard there are
> no volume and mute buttons, so I use the otherwise useless Search,
> Favorites, and Web/Home.)

I could live with that.  My main interest for mute is to quickly shut up
the computer when I answer the phone.

There are other buttons on the keyboard I thought I'd try out, though
I've never used similar ones on a Windows box (ones to open the mail
client, web browser, search, back and forth buttons, three confusing
ones with a moon [sleep?], computer icon [wakeup?] and a calculator.
None of which I could make do anything, not that I particularly cared.
It was just that they were there...

But there are a few more buttons which sounded a bit more useful (mute,
volume up & down), and some more that I might use too (stop, play/pause,
back track, forward track).  I can get XMMS to notice the play/pause
button with some xmms-acme RPM, which is useful (allows me to answer the
phone without the computer making a racket), but it doesn't pay
attention to any other key presses.

Actually, I wouldn't mind if the global key shortcut preferences didn't
do much, so long as any application I would like to control let me
choose my shortcut keys.  Too many applications seem to pick weird keys
for common functions.

[Richard E Miles]

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 22:37:21 +0930
Tim  wrote:
> Ttim:
> > > Try as I might, I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work that I
> > > program into the "keyboard shortcuts" preferences Gnome GUI tool.
> > >
> > > For example, I've tried the following, ineffectually:
> > >
> > > Launch help browser <Shift><Control>w  (original setting, but does nothing)
> > > E-mail 0xec (does nothing)
> > > Take screenshot <Shift>Print (this works)
> > > Run a terminal 0xeb (does nothing)
>
> Richard E Miles:
> > I tried some of the commands you mentioned with keyboard shortcuts and
> > they work for me. Of course these only work for the keyboard
> > activities that are available in the menu.
>
> By menu, do you mean the options in that configuration program?  Such as
> some of the ones I listed.
>
> Desktop:  log out, sleep, search, e-mail, launch web browser, run a
> terminal, all do nothing.  None of the sound category items do anything.
>
> I notice that some of these entries don't seem to have a corresponding
> entry in the gconf-editor mentioned below.
> > You click on the entry, then enter the key combination you want, and
> > it works. This is for the keyboard shortcuts from the Desktop
> > preferences keyboard selection.
>
> Not for me...  :-(  Only a few of them work.
> > If you want to use your own activity for example a keyboard
> > shortcut for the eject command you have to select from the
> > applications system tools configuration editor gui application. Select
> > apps metacity global_keybindings to enter the shortcut then from the
> > keyboard-commands selection enter the actual command to launch (ie
> > eject).
>
> Do you mean "keybinding_commands" rather than keyboard-commands?  That
> was the other thing I tried.  For instance:
>
> gconf-editor 2.10.0:
> ...
> gthumb
> metacity
>    general
>    global_keybindings
>      run_command_2      F7
>    keybinding_commands
>      command_2          xmms     
>    window_keybindings
>    workspace_names
> mini-commander
> ...
>
> That appears to work.  Though still doesn't help me with one or two
> useful buttons on this keyboard (e.g. un/mute the sound, volume
> up/down).

Sorry to hear that the key entry does not work for all entries.
Yes I meant keybinding_commands.

To modify the sound you can use the amixer command with appropriate arguments.
See man amixer. I havn't tried to do this myself but looks like it should work.

Hope this helps,