Unable to add/edit keyboard shortcuts in XFCE4

Question

I am attempting to edit existing and add new keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu 12.10 running XFCE 4.10.

When I attempt to add a new keyboard shortcut via Settings > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts, the screen shown when clicking + Add has a field entry for the command, but nothing for the Shortcut (no input field is shown, just a blank area).

Any advice?

Solution 1

Me too, Xubuntu using Xfce 4.10. It'll be fixed any day now I'm sure. See for example an Xfce forum entry where people reported shortcuts stopped working in 4.10, and this nice fellow Jerome jumped in with a ready fix, not even quite one entire year later!

If you'd rather not wait, I'm pretty sure the balky dialog is just a GUI glitch. You can edit the XML file (~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml) directly with a text editor. You can also still set shortcuts using the command line xfconf-query. This for example will add a keyboard shortcut Super-q to launch a terminal as Super-t does:

xfconf-query --channel xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts --property "/commands/custom/<Super>q" --create --type string --set "exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator"

Executing the above adds this line to xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml:

<property name="&lt;Super&gt;q" type="string" value="exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator"/>

The exact magic to add whatever shortcut it is you're hankering for, of course, will vary. The XML file is full of ideas, even if you decide to modify it using xfconf-query.

Solution 2

I too was a bit puzzled about this, but it works: you have to type the command you want in the input field, then select "OK" in the dialog.

Another dialog then appears:

With this dialog selected you just have to type the shortcut on your keyboard you want to assign to the command.

Comments

[tokarev]

Wow, that's quite unintuitive

[Edward Falk]

Yeah, took me a few minutes to figure that one out. I think a lot of Linux developers would do well to get and use a Mac for a few months to learn how to do things right.