How to re-enable function keys in byobu?

Question

I was using byobu on Ubuntu 11.10 Server and I needed to hit a function key in an app, so I hit F9 to bring up the config menu and switched the keybinding set from "f-keys" to "screen-escape-keys". That worked, but now I can't re-enable all the f-keys.

I found a program byobu-config that brings up the menu again, and I can switch back to screen keys from there. This fixes things for new screen processes, but the effect on the current screen session is weird: it disables the Ctrl+a (screen) keys and restores F2-F8, but F9-F12 still don't do anything (they're just passed on to the foreground process).

What's up with this? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

score 56 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 18 '17 at 20:04

56

Note: This only works if you're using Byobu with tmux as the back-end. See other answers for Byobu with screen as the back-end.

Just press Shift+F12 To toggle F-keys on and off.

Example : Launch htop (within a Byobu pane of course) then enter Shift+F12, then if you press F3 you will search in htop processes, not switch to the left Byobu window/pane.

Related question with answer also for screen.

edited Dec 18 '17 at 20:04

David Foerster

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answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:49

yPhil

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Note to future self: ignore the accepted answer status - this doesn't work for me. – xyzzyrz Oct 14 '12 at 20:15
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Thank you very much. I was struggling to figure out why I can't switch windows all of a sudden. – wujj123456 Nov 05 '12 at 19:44
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Does not work any more... (using ubuntu 12.04.1) – zipizap Jan 09 '13 at 15:01
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Works on Ubuntu 14.04 – biocyberman Jul 29 '15 at 20:00
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I guess this does not work on byobu-screen. Check @Dustin Kirkland's answer if does not work for you and you use byobu-screen. – hamdiakoguz Feb 10 '16 at 17:08
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Works on Ubuntu 14.04 with Tmux as well – Alexandro de Oliveira Nov 01 '17 at 14:44
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Ahhhh. I don't know how mine got (partially?) disabled, but F3 and F4 were outputting OR or OS for some reason. This fixed it for me! – Wayne Werner Aug 31 '18 at 18:49

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 04:33

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You can also toggle between the f-keys bindings and the screen-escape-keys bindings using:

ctrl-a-!

answered Feb 28 '12 at 04:33

Dustin Kirkland

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Here this displays the message "can't break with only one pane" are you sure of this shortcut ? – yPhil Oct 01 '12 at 08:42
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That only works in byobu-screen, not in byobu-tmux (https://bugs.launchpad.net/byobu/+bug/386363). In the latter the correct combination is SHIFT-F12. – invernizzi Nov 28 '12 at 20:40
This does work on Ubuntu 12.04.1 (NOTE: answer SHIFT-F12 does not work) – zipizap Jan 09 '13 at 15:03
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Note that this will also reset your meta/escape key, probably because it just sources /usr/share/byobu/keybindings/f-keys.screen.disable which has the line escape ^Aa. If you for example used 't' as your escape key you can set it again by hitting ctrl-a and then :escape ^Tt. – Perseids Feb 15 '14 at 10:29

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 04 '12 at 23:44

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We can attempt to debug your particular problem, however it would be much easier to just clean out your Byobu configuration and start clean:

rm -rf ~/.byobu

On 11.04, you'll also need to remove the folder this symlink points to:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/byobu

And then start byobu.

edited Dec 04 '12 at 23:44

Community

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answered Feb 17 '12 at 04:35

Dustin Kirkland

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 17 '17 at 14:10

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In case any of the key combinations from the other answers did not work, just try this equivalent command inside Byobu:

byobu-keybindings

answered Nov 17 '17 at 14:10

Leo

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 18 '17 at 20:02

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Make your ~/.byobu/keybindings look like this:

# source $BYOBU_PREFIX/share/byobu/keybindings/common
. /usr/share/byobu/keybindings/f-keys.screen.disable

and select screen as byobu's back-end via byobu-select-backend. That works in Debian, at least.

edited Dec 18 '17 at 20:02

David Foerster

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answered May 07 '13 at 16:36

user156504

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How to re-enable function keys in byobu?

5 Answers5