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I have Xubuntu version 22.04.1. This has started to happen to me only recently, and is annoying as heck: pressing the Super (Windows) key minimizes all the windows to show the bare desktop. (Pressing it again restores the windows.) How do I stop the Super key by itself having an effect?

It is only the left-side Super key that has this effect. Pressing the right-side Super key has no effect. I have the Swedish+Finnish keyboard, in case that makes any difference.

In Settings => Window Manager => Keyboard, I have no action mapped to the Super key, and the action "Show desktop" is mapped to Ctrl+Escape. I tried remapping the action to another key, then deleting the mapping and remapping, but none of that helped.

In Settings => Keyboard => Application Shortcuts, I have no action mapped to the Super key, nor is there a definition for a command that would show the desktop.

I have never attempted to map an action to the Super key by itself, nor do I want to.

Question How do I disable the Super key? has answers relevant only to Ubuntu and the Unity desktop. (Unity was the reason I switched to Xubuntu.)

Edited on 2022-10-01 to add:

The output of localectl is:

 System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
                LANGUAGE=en
                LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_NAME=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_ADDRESS=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_TELEPHONE=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8
                LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_GB.UTF-8
     VC Keymap: n/a
    X11 Layout: fi
     X11 Model: pc105

Edited on 2022-10-13 to add:

This is in reply to user Andra's suggestion to use screenkey. I installed it using apt, ran it, and started pressing keys. When I pressed either the the left-hand or the right-hand Super key (Super_L or Super_R) + m, screenkey displayed "Super+m". When I pressed and released the Super_R key, nothing happened, and screenkey displayed nothing. But: when I pressed and released the Super_L key, all the windows were minimized, as before, and screenkey displayed "Ctrl+Esc". (Pressing it again restores the windows.) As I mention above, the "Ctrl+Esc" shortcut is mapped to action "Show desktop" in Settings => Window Manager => Keyboard.

I then tried this: I remapped "Show desktop" to shortcut "Shift+Alt+F5". Now, when I pressed and released the Super_L key, screenkey again displayed "Ctrl+Esc", but there was no other effect. (Pressing Shift+Alt+F5 now did minimize the windows, and screenkey displayed "Alt+Shift+F5".)

I have no idea how the Super_L key came to be interpreted by the system as "Ctrl+Esc".

Edited on 2022-10-15 to add:

The output of setxkbmap -print -verbose 10 is:

Setting verbose level to 10
locale is C
Trying to load rules file ./rules/evdev...
Trying to load rules file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev...
Success.
Applied rules from evdev:
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     fi
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes:   evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types:      complete
compat:     complete
symbols:    pc+fi+inet(evdev)
geometry:   pc(pc105)
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete" };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete" };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+fi+inet(evdev)" };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

Edited on 2022-10-16 to add:

The output of xmodmap -pke | grep Super is:

keycode 133 = Super_L NoSymbol Super_L
keycode 134 = Super_R NoSymbol Super_R
keycode 206 = NoSymbol Super_L NoSymbol Super_L

Edited on 2022-10-19 to add:

The output of gsettings list-recursively | grep -i escape is:

org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings cycle-panels ['<Control><Alt>Escape']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings cycle-panels-backward ['<Shift><Control><Alt>Escape']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings cycle-windows ['<Alt>Escape']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings cycle-windows-backward ['<Shift><Alt>Escape']
org.gnome.mutter.wayland.keybindings restore-shortcuts ['<Super>Escape']
Teemu Leisti
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  • could you write the output of localectl plz? – Amirreza Oct 01 '22 at 09:55
  • @Amirreza I've added the output to my question. – Teemu Leisti Oct 01 '22 at 16:57
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    I do not confirm your issue. On daily installation iso xubuntu-jammy, pressing Super_Left, opens application menu. To configure it, press right mouse btn on mouse icon -> Properties. – pasman pasmański Oct 05 '22 at 19:10
  • @pasman pasmański I have another computer I've just installed Xubuntu 22.04.1 on, and I don't see this behaviour on that machine, either. So I must have done something to cause this to happen on the first machine; I just don't know what. If I figure it out, I'll add my own answer to this queestion. – Teemu Leisti Oct 05 '22 at 19:52
  • what do you see in Keyboard Preferences->Layouts->Show? It shows key presses. For me though it doesn't change color for Super_L (Main Menu is opened). – Andra Oct 07 '22 at 18:54
  • @Andra I'm not quite sure what you mean by your question. These are the settings in setting dialog "Keyboard", tab "Layout": "Use system defaults": slider on. The rest of the settings are in grey. "Keyboard model": Generic 105-key PC. "Change layout option": -. "Compose key": -. "Keyboard layout": a table with two columns, "Layout" and "Variant". There's a single row, with "Finnish" in the first column and nothing in the second one. There is no "Show" button anywhere in the dialog. – Teemu Leisti Oct 09 '22 at 19:41
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    sorry, another Ubuntu version. Screenkey? – Andra Oct 10 '22 at 16:24
  • @Andra I'll add the result to my question. – Teemu Leisti Oct 13 '22 at 16:12
  • maybe the output of setxkbmap -print -verbose 10 ? – Andra Oct 14 '22 at 20:41
  • @Andra Result added to the question. – Teemu Leisti Oct 14 '22 at 23:10
  • ok, one more, please, xmodmap -pke | grep Super – Andra Oct 15 '22 at 18:02
  • btw why do write that you have "Swedish+Finnish keyboard"? It seems you have the basic Finnish layout. Have you tried to add another layout and see what happens? – Andra Oct 15 '22 at 18:04
  • Again, the answer is appended to the question. I wrote that I have a "Swedish+Finnish keyboard" because the layout is this one, called the Swedish and Finnish keyboard. I'm not sure if the nomenclature has changed since that web page was updated. In the Xubuntu installation dialogs, I gave "Finnish" as the keyboard layout, which might be why the system says that the layout is "fi". It might be identical to the default Swedish keyboard layout. I have not tried to add another layout. – Teemu Leisti Oct 15 '22 at 21:00
  • I tried this: I added two keyboard layouts (Swedish and English (US)), then switched to one, and then to the other. In both cases, Super_L still behaved in the same was as before. When I had Screenkey on, it still displayed "Ctrl+Esc" when I clicked Super_L. – Teemu Leisti Oct 18 '22 at 03:25
  • During all the preceding, I've had an external keyboard attached. To rule out that being a contributor to the problem, I tried the (only) Super key of the laptop. Screenkey reported, again, that "Ctrl+Esc" had been pressed, and the result was also the same as before: pressing the key multiple times toggle the open windows between being minimized and restored. – Teemu Leisti Oct 18 '22 at 03:28
  • with not much hope - gsettings list-recursively | grep -i escape ? – Andra Oct 19 '22 at 18:58
  • Answer added to the end of the question, as before. – Teemu Leisti Oct 19 '22 at 20:26
  • couldn't it be that you have inadvertently pressed some special button on that keyboard or key combination that changes the behavior of Super key? It seems there are keyboards where, for example, Fn+F6 disables/enables the Super key. – Andra Oct 20 '22 at 11:17
  • It's a bog-standard keyboard, so I don't think that's the problem. Also, the laptop's own keyboard functions the same way. I'm going to configure the other laptop I have, which also has Xubuntu 22.04, the same way I've configured this one, and check at each stage if what I do causes this behaviour. – Teemu Leisti Oct 21 '22 at 07:30
  • @Andra I answered the question myself based on what I learned when configuring the other laptop I mentioned. This seems to me to be a bug in Xfce, because the its behaviour with regard to keystroke mapping doesn't make sense to me otherwise. Thanks for your help. – Teemu Leisti Oct 25 '22 at 05:39

1 Answers1

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The problem seems to be due to some sort of a bug with Xfce's keystroke mapping system. The solution was to clear, in Settings => Window Manager => Keyboard, my custom mapping of keystroke Ctrl+Esc to action "Show desktop".

I found out the following when configuring another laptop with Xubuntu 22.04 just installed. I was customizing the keystroke mappings (Settings => Window Manager => Keyboard). By default, the keystroke for "Show desktop" was "Super+D". Keystrokes Super_L+D and Super_R+D showed the desktop, as expected, and the key Super_L by itself showed the whisker menu (Xfce's equivalent to the Windows Start menu), which was unexpected.

I then changed the keystroke that maps to action "Show desktop" to Ctrl+Esc, as I had done on the laptop that first presented the problem. Immediately after this, keystroke Super+D did nothing anymore, as expected; keystroke Ctrl+Esc showed the desktop, as expected; and key Super_L by itself also showed the desktop, as certainly not expected, and which is the problem under discussion.

Clearing the mapping of keystroke Ctrl+Esc to action "Show desktop" resolved the problem. After this, Super_L did nothing anymore, whereas before I started manipulating the mappings, it showed the whisker menu, as mentioned. But I did not see an explicit mapping of Super_L to the whisker menu anywhere.

Teemu Leisti
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