Xfce Forum

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

reloading keyboard shortcuts

i have updated the big .xml file for keyboard shortcuts.  for a couple users i want to avoid logging them out for a while.  is there a way to have keyboard shortcuts reloaded without logging them out or closing any windows?

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

This thread proposes to kill (pkill) xfdesktop, not sure if it'll work, but you can give it a try:

pkill -HUP xfdesktop

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

didn't work.  but at least it didn't cause a logout.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

i have updated the big .xml file for keyboard shortcuts.

You shouldn't update these files when Xfce is running. Xfconfd regularly writes these settings from memory to those files - especially when logging out. To edit these contents, use the tools provided or xfconf-query. If you want to edit the xml files directly, make sure you are logged out and that xfsettingsd and xfconf are not running.

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butla

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 2

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

Hmm, changing the file and then restarting xfconfd and xfsettingsd as described in https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=54640 works well for me.

Maybe it's fine to modify the settings files if we're not using the graphical settings editors at the same time?

The problem I see with tools like xfconf-query is that it takes way more effort to maintain the same configurations on different boxes by automating them compared to just keeping a settings file in Git.

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

that and i work to keep the same settings across about 25 users (compartmentalization) of which i typically have 5-12 logged in at a time.  before i started regular graphical use, various settings were easy to share by copying, making editing easy, too.  with so many graphical users unable to that, new system designs are focusing on being interactive, which, for people like me, means more work.

a future design should include a means to have a single-settings point and the ability to share.  a user can import another user's settings, if exported.  a way to do this securely is also needed (the exporter keeps a list of authorized public keys).  the exporter can change settings at any time and the importers can see it within seconds or so.  i probably should start a protocol framework design for this.

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

the problem is back.  i rebooted and changed all the .xml files to include the keypad based workspace jumps for 10 workspaces.  then i rebboted, again.  they work fine in all users i tried except for the "forums" user. bringing up settings > keyboard and going into Application Shortcuts i can see them all there and they look correct, but they just don't jump.  there's no action at all for this one user.  a quick check of md5 checksum shows they are all identical files.  it looks like it loaded them ok.  other shortcuts do work on this user.  but all the keypad ones don't.

what can i check next?

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: reloading keyboard shortcuts

i'd like to understand how shortcuts work.  can any X application intercept selected keystrokes or is it more complicated such as an Xfce process handling all keystrokes?  the latter case might be how adding a shortcut prevents other processes from getting that keystroke.  i'm just wondering if i could do keyboard shortcuts in a separate application i create.

edit:

it turns out that making a key does be a shortcut does not block the process in focus from getting the keystroke.  i add another shortcut (to run a script that saves its environment) and pressed "2" on the keypad.  it showed that key "2" was pressed, although doing the same for other users shows "KP Down" was pressed.  it look like in this user, the keys have different identities.  anyway, i switch to a terminal and pressed "2" (the one right under F2) and "2" showed up on the terminal.  the environment was saved, too.  so, the keystroke still goes to the focused application even for a shortcut.

it appears to be "xfsettingsd" that actually captures the key presses and releases.

Last edited by Skaperen (2019-09-20 22:38:42)