Unbind Ctrl+Alt+[Left | Right]

General Help
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#1

I'm on Zorin 16.1 Core. An application I use maps Ctrl+Alt+Left (similarly Right) to a set of actions in the application. However, these shortcuts don't work under Zorin.

To investigate why, I opened a keyboard testing website and it doesn't register me pressing Ctrl+Alt+Left simultaneously. Each key works fine pressed individually though. This is not a hardware issue, as this is an N-Key rollover keyboard, and the shortcut works fine in Windows.

This suggests to me that Zorin/GNOME is intercepting this shortcut. However, no such shortcut is listed in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts. I found a similar issue on askubuntu.com, but the solutions presented there didn't work for me. Any idea how to fix this?

#2

Be default, the ctrl+alt+left-right arrow keys are used for switching Workspaces.
I wonder if this may be a clue as to why you are unable to use them, currently.

#3

Yes, that was mentioned in the issue I linked. I just haven't had any luck disabling the shortcut. Zorin doesn't even support left/right workspaces though, so it's odd that this shortcut exists by default.

#4

Must be a difference between Gnome (Zorin OS Core) and XFCE (Zorin OS Lite)
I use Zorin OS Lite, and the keyboard shortcut for workspace switcher works.

In Gnome, you might have some luck installing Gnome Tweak tool

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

And changing the workspace switcher from Dynamic to static.
Once done, log back in and try changing the keyboard shortcut.

Or, try examining your shorctuts

gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings

and change

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down "[]"
#5

I installed gnome-tweaks, enabled the "Static Workspaces" option, and logged back in, but there was still no shortcut listed in Settings for switching workspaces left or right.

Interestingly, I tried enabling the "Horizontal workspaces" extension in GNOME Tweaks, and indeed Ctrl-Alt-[Left | Right] function for switching left and right between workspaces. Still, these shortcuts don't appear in Settings.

As for using gsetting to clear the shortcut, I had already tried that, as that was suggested in that page I linked earlier.

I ran

gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings

And this was the output: https://pastebin.com/9c0CpkvC

Looking at that output, it doesn't seem to match at all what I have configured in Settings. For example, it shows the close action as Alt+F4, but I have it set as Super+Q. So it look to me like the Settings application is saving the shortcuts somewhere else.

1 Like
#6

Perhaps @Storm or @Elegant_Emperor or another user who is much better with Gnome Desktop than I am can be more helpful.

#7

Maybe its the application which has the problem. I would like to know which application it is and the method you used to install it. Most apps have the settings to modify keybindings within them.

#8

CLion, installed through the JetBrains Toolbox App. The Toolbox App was downloaded from its webpage.

I'm certain it's not CLion that has the issue though, as I can reproduce the problem on the keyboard testing website, as mentioned.

#9

There is no keyboard shortcut as ctrl+alt+[left|right] in toolbox according to their website:

However, I tried to reproduce this in Pop!_OS and the shortcut did not work on my side either.

#10

The shortcut is for CLion, not the Toolbox App.

#11

The shortcut does not exist in CLion either. Go to Help->Keyboard Shortcuts pdf; and you can see all the available keyboard shortcuts. I did not find any settings in CLion to modify the shortcuts either so I don't think that the shortcuts were changed.

#12

The shortcut exists. It is part of my keymap (which is customizable in Settings > Keymap).

Anyways, there's a reason I didn't mention CLion in my initial post: it's irrelevant. I can reproduce the issue outside of CLion, on the keyboard testing website using Chrome. Not only that, when I enabled "Horizontal workspaces" as described above, I confirmed that Ctrl+Alt+[Left | Right] is bound to workspace switching. That is the issue.

To be clear, I appreciate your help, I just want to get across that the issue is not with CLion, so discussing CLion won't get us anywhere.

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#13

I finally got this issue fixed. Using dconf Editor, I found the problematic keybinds at /org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/switch-to-workspace-[left | right]. Clearing those keybinds by setting them to [] resolved my problem.