Creating keyboard shortcuts using Fn or Win key in mint 12

[Cool Name Man]

I run mint 12 on a laptop and I wonder if I can create keyboard shortcuts using the Fn and the Window key. Has anyone figured out how to do that in mint 12? If yes, please share your trick.

[xenopeek]

From the menu open System Tools > System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts tab > Custom Shortcuts. Add a shortcut with the + sign. After giving a name and a command to run, you can click the "Disabled" at the right of your new shortcut. Then press a key combination to bind to this command. You can bind the Windows key + a letter for example. I'm not sure you can bind the Fn key with random keys, that depends also on how the keyboard handles this (does it send the Fn keypress, or does it only send the modified key you press with the Fn?).

[Cool Name Man]

Thanks Vincent Vermeulen, but I tried that before posting. Can't create shortcuts with the windows key.

[xenopeek]

You can check if your keyboard keypresses are detected at all. First run:

Code: Select all

xinput list

Now take the id from one of the lines listing as keyboard. Probably not the first, but one of the latter. For example, my output is:

Code: Select all

⎡ Virtual core pointer                       id=2   [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                 id=4   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse            id=8   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                      id=3   [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard                id=5   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                               id=6   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                               id=7   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                             id=9   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                             id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]

I need to user id=9. Then run:

Code: Select all

xinput test 9

Try some keypresses with the Windows key to see if it is detected allright. Press Ctrl+C to abort (or just close the terminal). Here is me pressing Windows + A key (Windows key = 133, A = 38):

$ xinput test 9
key release 36
key press 133
key press 38
akey release 38
key release 133

[Cool Name Man]

Thanks again Vincent. The window key works and is in fact, already a shortcut to launch what the infinity symbol in top left corner does. Here's the output for my desired key-combination win+F1 to launch gedit.

Code: Select all

key press   133
key press   67
key release 67
key release 133


(And yes, I did check whether I was setting the wrong command or something by first setting shift+/ as shortcut, which worked and then trying win+F1, which doesn't.)

The Fn key isn't detected unless it's in combination with the arrow keys. They control brightness and system volume and are working fine. There are other Fn key combinations but they're not being detected.

[xenopeek]

As suspected, the Fn keys are hardware level key modifiers. They are not sent to the computer as keys, but modify what is sent to the computer for other keys you press in combination. So no sense in proceeding on that.

I'm guessing you are running Linux Mint 12 with Gnome 3 + MGSE, as per default installed? I think I did manage to create a Windows key shortcut on Linux Mint 12, but only when using Cinnamon.