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I moved from KDE to Xfce, and I've found that I cannot use Super+Space as a keyboard shortcut (applied via the Xfce keyboard settings program).

My main concern is that I use that shortcut to open up my drop-down terminal (which is currently xfce4-terminal using the --drop-down option). The catch so far has been that I can use Yakuake with this keyboard shortcut, but not xfce4-terminal.

Andrea Corbellini
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aperson
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2 Answers2

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The xfce4 drop-down functionality was recently added in Xfce4-terminal version 0.6.1. whose release was announced just about two weeks ago.

According to launchpad, there appear to only be source packages(not .deb files) for the Raring release.

Adding the PPA:

There are PPAs available from the xfce-dev team for 12.04 and 12.10.

To add these repositories, run the following commands from the terminal Ctrl-Alt-t:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xfce4-terminal

Configuring the keyboard shortcut:

In order to set up the Super-Space functionality, follow these steps:

  • Go to Applications Menu --> Settings --> Keyboard.
  • Select the Application Shortcuts Tab and Select the Add button.
  • For the shortcut command field, enter xfce4-terminal --drop-down and select OK.
  • Finally, enter the keyboard combination that you wish to use for your shortcut.

For more information on this functionality, see the webupd8 article or this one article. The webupd8 article has instructions on configuring the drop-down functionality that you are looking for, I believe.

Community
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Kevin Bowen
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    This is entirely not an answer to my question. Not to be rude, but I already have xfce4-terminal with dropdown mode installed. My question is the super+space issue. – aperson Mar 15 '13 at 01:04
  • @aperson I've added steps on how to add that shortcut to my answer. If you are already have that keyboard shortcut set up specifically to use with Yakuake, then the short answer is you cannot use the same keyboard combo for another application. – Kevin Bowen Mar 15 '13 at 01:28
  • That still does not help. I have long uninstalled yakuake and xfce will not let me use super space as a keyboard shortcut for anything. My only reasoning for bringing up yakuake was that it can use super+space whilst any app in xfce cannot (even if all kde apps are uninstalled). – aperson Mar 15 '13 at 05:28
  • @aperson Are you getting any sort of error messages? I am running multiple DEs on several boxes and that shortcut is working just fine switching between Kubuntu, Xubuntu, gnome, and Unity without any issues. Unless you can provide some specifics in regards to your system or any error messages there is not much more I can help you with. – Kevin Bowen Mar 15 '13 at 11:45
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A bug in XFCE prevents mapping either Space or Escape. This was assigned to xfwm4 (the window manager, which has its own keyboard shortcuts), xfwm4#18 – Cannot use Space or Esc in shortcuts on the presumption that this relates to overlapping keyboard combinations. Ubuntu bug 454337 was closed when they could not reproduce it in 2012 (XFCE 4.8). The upstream xfwm4 bug is still opened, albeit with no notable activity since 2010.

The xfwm4 bug has the following workaround (which works for Super+Space but does not properly implement my preferred Primary+Super+Space sequence). The GUI doesn't let you assign this shortcut, but the command line does:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -np \
  "/commands/custom/<Super>space" -t string -s "xeyes"

(This uses xeyes as a stand-in for the program you want to launch.)

You can edit ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml directly, though I'd recommend the CLI command instead.

(If relevant: I am not using xfwm4. I use a different window manager.)

Adam Katz
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