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I've removed the default GNOME keybinding to the Super key and I tried to rebind it using gsettings to its own key:

matt@hydrogen:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys custom-keybindings
['/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/']
matt@hydrogen:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/ binding
'<Super>'

Setting it with gsettings works fine, but it doesn't work.

In the GNOME Settings GUI it shows up as "Disabled":

GNOME Settings Custom Keybindings, where the custom keybinding is shown as disabled

But when clicking on it, it shows that it is bound to the Super key: GNOME Settings that shows that the keybinding is set to the Super key

I've considered using xbindkeys, but this unfortunately doesn't support Wayland, which I am currently using. Obviously it seems like GNOME doesn't like me doing this, but are there any possible workarounds?

mattrick
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1 Answers1

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Changing the behaviour of pressing and releasing Super will, as far as I know, require the use of a utility ksuperkey. See my answer here for some more background on ksuperkey and where to find it. One caveat: Probably the utility will work fine in Wayland, but I am not sure.

The first thing you need to do in any case is disable the Super key for showing the overview:

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key ''

You could now first try if your own approach now works. If it does, let us know because that would be most straightforward. I doubt it, however, and then you can try using ksuperkey.

Once started, ksuperkey by default redirects pressing and releasing Super to Alt+F1. There are two possible approaches: 1) you rebind Alt+F1 to your custom command (by default in Gnome, it shows the "menu", i.e., the overview) or 2) you redirect to another keyboard combination by launching ksuperkey with the -e option, e.g. 

ksuperkey -e 'Super_L=Control_L|space'

will redirect Super to Ctrl+Space.

The utility must be running, so you will need to have it autostart after login.

vanadium
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  • Thanks for your response! It does seem to generate the keycodes correctly except when I'm focused on a GNOME-y window. So for example, in Settings and Terminal it doesn't work at all. – mattrick Jun 05 '19 at 09:52