Keyboard shortcut settings being ignored at random

[stevehawley]

Distribution (run cat /etc/os-release):
NAME="Pop!_OS"
VERSION="18.10"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Pop!_OS 18.10"
VERSION_ID="18.10"
HOME_URL="https://system76.com/pop"
SUPPORT_URL="http://support.system76.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://system76.com/privacy"
VERSION_CODENAME=cosmic
UBUNTU_CODENAME=cosmic

Related Application and/or Package Version (run apt policy $PACKAGE NAME):
keyboard shortcuts

Issue/Bug Description:
I set a new keyboard shortcut for view split left and view split right, it works for a while. Randomly, one of them will just stop working and I have to reset it.

Steps to reproduce (if you know):
Set the shortcut and go about your business, sometimes it happens after rebooting.

Expected behavior:
Keyboard shortcut that is set triggers the corresponding action

Other Notes:

[tedric42]

Same issue -- I even use the same key combo for the same commands. Each one seems to start/stop working independently, often correlated with a sleep/wake or reboot. Resetting manually hasn't consistently helped. It's only "View split on left/right" that are affected (Super-Left/Right); maximize & restore (Super-Up/Down) always work.

In case hardware makes a difference here: I'm on an X1 Carbon 5th gen.

[jmarlow4]

I have the same problem. I'm on a ThinkPad X1 Extreme. Also my favorites key doesn't work. It's the alt for F12 on thinkpads. This works on Manjaro Gnome, which is what I'm switching from.

[ofuangka]

I have the same issue on a Thinkpad X1 Carbon 4th gen.

Edit: "View split on left/right" seemed to work consistently after I used my FN key to mute the volume, but given the above comments, that may be a fluke.

[ahnaf-rafi]

This is persistent on 19.04 - one can install a vanilla GNOME session and remap the shortcuts there (they remain at ctrl+super+left/right whereas all others are reverted to GNOME defaults). They work perfectly after remapping then, but this seems like an unsatisfactory solution.

Has anyone been able to figure out why they don't work after remapping?

[ahnaf-rafi]

Okay - tentative "solution" using dconf-editor. (Disclaimer: I have no real idea of how these things work, I just experimented with it and it seems to work - will detail why below)

So before, I would use Settings>Devices>Keyboard and set View Split on Left/Right to Super+Left/Right. This would break in the way detailed by OP. For me, restarting GNOME session (via Alt+F2 and then r) was sufficient. At random one or both of the View Splits would stop working.

Now, for some reason, I have found via dconf-editor that the following are originally mapped to Super+Left/Right:
/org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings: switch-to-workspace-left/right

In fact, these were preserved even after I edited View Split on Left/Right in Settings effectively mapping Super+Left/Right doubly for each direction. I think this caused the confusion. The View Splits can be found in dconf-editor under:
/org/gnome/mutter/keybindings: toggle-tiled-left/right

Steps to fix (according to my needs):
In /org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings: for each switch-to-workspace-left/right, edit by setting "Use default value" to false (or unchecked) and then changing the keybinding from ['Left/Right'] to [].

For the View Splits, you can now set it to Super+Left/Right either edit it in settings or in dconf-editor
by editing the relevant entries for /org/gnome/mutter/keybindings: toggle-tiled-left/right: set "Use default value" to false and then set ['Left/Right'] for the appropriate direction.

The only test I used to see if the fix didn't break was to restart GNOME session, and so far it has survived.

[ahnaf-rafi]

Update:
Moving windows between monitors horizontally also exhibits this problem for the same reasons: in /org/gnome/desktop/keybindings, Shift+Super+Left/Right is assigned to moving windows between workspaces horizontally. Deleting this and then remapping as above solves the problem!

[j-veylop]

I'm having the same issue. They just seem to stop working completely at random. The weirdest thing is that some of them are not reset, like moving between workspaces. Definitely something fucky wucky with the customization.

[HymanZHAN]

@ahnafalrafi Thank you for the investigation! You solution fixes my issue with split view. Lifesaver!

[pt8o]

Adding a +1 on this issue and another thanks to @ahnafalrafi for the dconf workaround

[CleverJason]

Same issue. Another thanks to @ahnafalrafi.

[richardARPANET]

Also getting this issue on a fresh install of the latest version. Will have to switch back to KDE if it's not fixed very quickly.

edit:

the 'fix' for me was to install KDE desktop and use that instead of the pop os one..

[kachourim]

Same issue on a fresh install of Pop!_OS 19.10.