How to disable the alt-hotkey behavior on gnome terminal?

Question

This is not just gnome terminal, but pretty much all gnome windows: When you hold the "alt" key, you can press the first letter of one of the menu items. This will let you scroll that menu without clicking on it directly.

This is okay on any other window, like say Firefox, but on gnome terminal, it steals the keys I use for emacs!! There is very little chance of me learning a new set key combinations if I can avoid.

If I can't isolate this just to gnome terminal, I'm fine with that.

Seems worth a bug report. It's a terrible idea for a terminal emulator to intercept Alt or Ctrl combinations. — ak2, Mar 13 '11 at 21:24
This behavior might be useful if it didn't negatively impact my ability to use the terminal. — taranaki, Jul 11 '16 at 17:56

score 54 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 13 '11 at 21:01

54

Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts..., and uncheck "Enable menu access keys".

answered Mar 13 '11 at 21:01

geekosaur

11,597

2

This doesn't seem to work for me (natty, unity interface). ALT will still bring the menu up. – Johann Philipp Strathausen Jun 01 '11 at 16:06
2

Works in Oneiric. – Emil Sit Nov 19 '11 at 03:43
Doesnt work in presice (12.04 lts). – bagavadhar Feb 15 '13 at 18:02
I've disabled both Alt and F10 keys in the profile preferences, but gnome‑terminal still catch F10 and displays a pop‑up menu. This behaviour gnome‑terminal has, makes any rich text UI unusable from gnome‑terminal. – Hibou57 Apr 10 '13 at 09:24
4

Works on Ubuntu 14.04. – David Boshton Jan 09 '15 at 09:05
2

I use Ubuntu 15.10 and in the Edit menu of GNOME Terminal there is no option "Keyboard Shortcuts", just "Preferences" and "Profile preferences". Can somebody guide me to the location of this setting in my version of GNOME Terminal? Thank you! – silviubogan Nov 29 '15 at 14:52
2

Is there a way to do this in 16.04? – Hatshepsut Sep 06 '16 at 23:52
1

@silviubogan, Hatshepsut: see Santropedro's answer below (http://askubuntu.com/a/719271/103671) for gnome-terminal > 3.14 (or the reverse of his answer, in your case). Worked for me on ubuntu 16.04/gnome terminal 3.18.3. – fakeleft Sep 12 '16 at 10:05
1

I can't find that option in 16.04 ? – Ahmed Eid May 06 '17 at 06:39
In gnome-terminal 3.14.3, under preferences, under "Enable mnemonics...". – Gray Feb 15 '18 at 20:04

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '16 at 01:16

4

For Gnome terminal 3.14.1: Click Edit (on menu bar) > Preferences > At last on "General" tab, Un-check "enable mnemonics..." .

answered Jan 10 '16 at 01:16

Santropedro

175
13

This worked for me, thanks. Alt-C and Alt-V are now map-able. Woo hoo! – Gray Feb 15 '18 at 20:05

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 04:17

4

In Ubuntu 16.04, go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Launchers, and clear the Key to show the HUD (or change it to another key)

answered Jul 01 '16 at 04:17

Peter

41

1

This is my preferred option -- to disable the HUD entirely -- because a) the HUD is thoroughly useless, and b) if I accidentally press Alt by itself whilst using Bash Alt+F Alt+B shortcuts, the HUD irritatingly steals focus away from the terminal. – Damien Oct 19 '16 at 00:46

metakermit · Answer 4 · 2013-06-05T11:31:54.613

3

If you want to do it globally, you can try this method (source):

To disable mnemonics you should create (if it doesn't already exist) ~/.gtkrc-2.0. This file should contain the line gtk-enable-mnemonics = 0 (you can add other GTK settings if you'd like). Then, restart for the changes to take effect (you may be able to log out then log in instead).

The alt key will still make menus appear in some cases, but the mnemonics are now disabled. Hoorah!

EDIT: this method no longer works. I filed a bug report regarding the OP's question so we'll see how it evolves.

edited Jun 05 '13 at 11:31

answered Feb 01 '13 at 22:10

metakermit

2,640

1

I tried it today on ubuntu 14.04 and it worked :-) – gwenzek Mar 04 '15 at 09:54

Fonnae · Answer 5 · 2013-03-25T12:19:12.650

2

This is really driving me crazy too. I'd like to use Alt-V for paste as it is much more ergonomic than using CTRL but this doesn't seem possible because of the View menu option.

Overall this seems like a bug because when I disable the hotkeys in Preferences I am no longer able to use Alt-V for accessing the View menu but I am also not able to use that combination for other things.

I was able to get Alt-Z to work because there is no menu beginning with Z.

edited Mar 25 '13 at 12:19

answered Mar 25 '13 at 12:13

Fonnae

241

1

In gnome-terminal version 3.14.3, they've added a "Enable mnemonics..." preferences entry that you can disable. Then the Alt-V is map-able. Oh glorious Alt-C / Alt-V. – Gray Feb 15 '18 at 20:02

How to disable the alt-hotkey behavior on gnome terminal?

5 Answers5

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