custom-keybindings not found

Question

When I tried to list the available custom keybindings using gsettings command

gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys custom-keybindings

I got the error message saying,

No such key 'custom-keybindings'

I graphically checked my custom keyboard shortcuts and it was empty. So I thought this is normal. So I tried to add new keybinding using

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys custom-keybindings "['/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom1/']"

Again the same error returned. I am using Ubuntu 12.04 in virtualbox. Doesn't it comes with the key custom-keybindings? How can I add a new custom-keybindingusing gsettings?

possible duplicate of How to set custom keyboard shortcuts from terminal? — Sylvain Pineau, Mar 31 '15 at 07:33
This is not duplicate. I know how to set shortcuts using gsettings. But the problem is I cannot find the key custom-keybindings in Ubuntu 12.04. Is that a bug? I was able to locate it in 14.04 but not in 12.04. Where the keybinding files are actually stored in 12.04? — Anonymous Platypus, Mar 31 '15 at 07:40
Until (and including) 12.04, custom keybindings are not stored in the dconf database, but in ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings (in subfolders like custom0 etc). It is an xml file. See: http://askubuntu.com/a/101248/72216 — Jacob Vlijm, Mar 31 '15 at 08:12
possible duplicate of Where does Ubuntu store its keyboard shortcut configuration? — Jacob Vlijm, Mar 31 '15 at 08:13
@JacobVlijm I found that now. Thanks. So to add a new custom shortcut in Ubuntu 12.04 what I need to do is just create another folder named custom1 and place a %gconf.xml with settings. Am I right? — Anonymous Platypus, Mar 31 '15 at 09:03
@AnonymousPlatypus I tried that, and it works, if the folder is named correctly, the file is correct and... after a log out / in. It can be scripted of course :) — Jacob Vlijm, Mar 31 '15 at 09:11
Thanks a lot for the mention. I will try out and will put an answer. But there is a time parameter in that file.Those line are actually important? Is it possible to replace that unix time value with any value? — Anonymous Platypus, Mar 31 '15 at 09:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 01 '15 at 05:30

Jacob Vlijm's python script was very useful. I am sharing a shell script to do this if someone may find it useful.

#!/bin/sh
ls -d ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings/*/
    if [[ `echo $?` == 2 ]]; then
        shortCutNumber=0
        else
        shortCutNumber=$((`ls -d ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings/*/ | tail -c 3 | head -c 1`+1))
    fi
    echo -e '<?xml version="1.0"?>' > %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t<gconf>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t<entry name="action" mtime="`date +%s`" type="string">' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t\t<stringvalue>gnome-terminal -e '`pwd`/LanChat.sh'</stringvalue>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t</entry>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t<entry name="name" mtime="`date +%s`" type="string">' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t\t<stringvalue>QryptoChat</stringvalue>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t</entry>' | tee -a %gconf.xml
    echo -e '\t<entry name="binding" mtime="`date +%s`" type="string">' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t\t<stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;q</stringvalue>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '\t</entry>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    echo -e '</gconf>' | tee -a %gconf.xml 
    mkdir ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings/custom$shortCutNumber
    mv %gconf.xml ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings/custom$shortCutNumber/

The script first checks whether there exists any custom shortcuts already. And then creates the %gconf.xml file inside a new custom folder with the necessary settings.

custom-keybindings not found

1 Answers1