GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 167662
"Launch web browser" keybinding does not work.
Last modified: 2006-06-08 16:07:03 UTC
Please describe the problem: I am unable to assign a keyboard shortcut for launching a web browser. Steps to reproduce: 1. Go to the keybinding dialog 2. Assign a key for launching a web browser (I used <Mod4>z) 3. Press that key Actual results: There is a brief but noticeable focus change (the active window momentarily loses focus and gets it back), but nothing else happens. Expected results: A new browser window should be opened. Does this happen every time? Yes Other information: Preferred applications dialog has "mozilla-firefox %s" as the web browser. GNOME applications (e.g. GNOME Terminal) can open URLs.
I noticed IGNORED_MODS at the top of gnome-settings-multimedia-keys.c, and a deep suspicion was born in the dark corners of my mind. <Mod4>z does not work. Plain 'z' does work (although is quite useless). I assume that Control+z and Alt+z would also work. It appears that the Penguin key (aka Win9x, aka Super) is deliberately not accepted by gnome-settings-multimedia-keys. Note I can use <Mod4> in, e.g. Metacity's /apps/metacity/global_keybindings, and it works. Here's the output of xmodmap on my system: shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e) lock Caps_Lock (0x42) control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x6d) mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Alt_R (0x71), Alt_L (0x7d), Meta_L (0x9c) mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d) mod3 Mode_switch (0x5d) mod4 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5e), Super_L (0x73), Super_R (0x75), Super_L (0x7f), Hyper_L (0x80) mod5 Scroll_Lock (0x4e), Mode_switch (0x5d), ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c) I use an xkb symbols file of my own to map my laptop's <LSGT> key to Super_L, with some additional hackery so that Shift+<LSGT>+<TLDE> becomes Multi_key. I do not think it is relevant, though.
there is a similar issue on the ubuntu bugzilla: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=10521
*** Bug 313839 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think that the problem is that <Mod4> is not uniformly recognized. Currently, we have the less-than-ideal situation where global key-bindings are handled in (at least) two places - gnome-settings-daemon and metacity. Metacity can speak <Mod4>, and handles the "open terminal" binding. G-s-d cannot speak <Mod4> and handles the "open web browser" binding.
Possible gnome-settings-daemon patch attached to (a different, I think) bug 165343. http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165343#c4
Should this be renamed to something like 'gnome-settings-daemon ignores shortcuts involving <Mod4>'?
Oh, I found that gnome-settings-daemon ignores shortcuts involving my Alt Gr (AKA <Mod5>) key as well.
*** Bug 344280 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think this is the same as bug 165343, if someone can explain why they are different, please reopen. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 165343 ***