MHR wrote: > On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 11:13 PM, Nick Fenwick <neek at tcp.co.uk> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> How can I investigate why my Windows key is not triggering the expected >> keybinding commands? >> > This may seem dumb, but are you sure it's not your keyboard? I use a > Logitech EX110 wireless keyboard and mouse, and every once in a while > the number keypad goes silent, and then it comes back for no > particular reason. Could your Mod key be misbehaving? > Thanks for the pointers. This is a new keyboard, installed because I spilled some oil on the last one (it's amazing how frustrating programming without a working 9 key is). The mod key never starts/stops working during a session .. it's always rebooting that changes it to/from working state. > Also, there are three key bindings files in gnome (none of which I > recall by name at the moment) but you need to make sure they all are > set correctly (there's one for each section of the keystroke > preferences window - desktop, multimedia and windows). I had some > problems similar to this when the right settings wound up in the wrong > file, but nothing as sporadic as what you're describing. > I've had a look at what gnome-keybinding-properties gives me, and see it controls stuff like the workspace switching keys. My alt-1, alt-2 etc. bindings always work, regardless of the dodgy mod key. It's only the mod key, among all the keybindings that I use in heavy programming sessions i.e. using lots of keybindings in lots of apps, that is intermittent as I described. Having said that, the only utility to which I put my windows key is the metacity keybindings as I described. I'm in a session now where my mod4 key is not working. I just tried setting the 'switch to workspace 1' gnome-keybinding-properties key to mod4-1 instead of alt-1. This app has the benefit over the gconf-editor in that it reads keypresses that you type and enters the keycodes for you. As soon as I press the windows key, it enters "Super_L" and refuses to accept the '1'. Trying to assign mod4-2 to workspace 2 results in it accepting Super_L and complaining that that is already assigned. I haven't come across Super_L before. Some googling led me to http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-46657.html , which indicates I should change my "Alt/Win key behaviour" from "Default" (whatever that is) to something else. Trying "Meta is mapped to the Win-keys" causes g-k-p to come up with <Mod4><Hyper>x, and suddenly the old <Mod4>x binding in gconf's metacity section is working, running xterm as requested. So I guess my problem was the System->Preferences->Keyboard=>Layout Options->Alt/Win key behaviour setting being Default. I'll play around more on other reboots and see if the Super_L behaviour changes for any reason. Cheers :) Nick