[SOLVED] Remap Win key to open Kicker laucher?

[loobyloo]

Hello all

Just started with Mint and just finding my way round. Very pleased that it got me straight onto my wireless internet (something that neither Mepis nor Mageia could do).

Is there a way of making the LH Win key bring up the main menu? When I used to use Mepis someone showed me how to write a little shell script and then tell it to Autostart. It was a bit of a faff, but it worked. Of course, I didn't save the script.

Has anyone found a way of doing this? It's not allowed by doing it through keyboard shortcuts--you have to use two keys. (Edit: actually, there doesn't seem to be an option for lauching the Kicker at all in the shortcuts)

TIA

Cliff

[loobyloo]

I have worked out how to do this, by looking back at an old thread on the Mepis forums.

Use the xev command to find out the keycode for the Winkey by opening xev in a terminal, pressing the winkey and making a note of the numerical output. In my case it's 133 but when I used Mepis is was 115.

Write the following file and save it as something (mine is win-key.sh), changing the keycode number if necessary.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
xmodmap -e 'keycode 133 = F13'

Put it in home/.kde/Autostart and make it executable.

Right click on the application launcher and go to Application Launcher Settings > Keyboard Shortcut.

You should be able to press the winkey, and it will show as F13.

Now, the winkey will behave like it does in Windows. You might need to check it survives a reboot though.

HTH

[Zalbor]

Of course that removes the ability to use it as a modifier key, to zoom in for example.
I'd like it to open the menu too, but if I'd lose its other uses I'm fine with using win+space to do it.

[loobyloo]

Of course that removes the ability to use it as a modifier key, to zoom in for example.
I'd like it to open the menu too, but if I'd lose its other uses I'm fine with using win+space to do it.

It's a trade off I suppose as there's advantages and disadvantages. I use the menu more frequently than the zoom so it's that that I want to come up instantly with one key. And if I may be allowed to confess my sins, I must say for me, it's one of the useful bits of Windows behaviour that I'd like to retain.