Matching Up Hotkeys for OS X and Linux GUIs?

I use a MacBook Pro for my main machine, but also have a Ubuntu desktop. I get irritated about switching between command-oriented hotkeys and ctrl-oriented hotkeys (cmd-a on OSX = ctrl-a on Linux/windows). I've looked over a lot of forums and have found that Gnome doesn't seem capable of changing hotkeys, while xfce and fluxbox can. The ideal solution would be a way to change system keys in X, or at the system level — that way I can keep compiz. Does anyone have any ideas or know a trick to change system hot keys?

Surely you jest

[Frequency Domain]

System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts

Go wild.

Re:What?

[mbeans]

IIRC, compiz has its own keybindings that override Gnome's.

Install the ccsm package for a gui to configure it.

remap

[Anonymous Coward]

you can remap your keys to anything you want
works great for the lame "media keys" on all those $80 keyboards out there
i havent done it in forever but you might want to read the man pages for 'xev' and 'xmodmap'

xmodmap

[Improv]

man xmodmap

Gnome (metacity, compiz), fluxbox, xbindkeys

[SlashdotOgre]

Well I have no experience with OSX, but as for Gnome, assuming you're using Metacity as your compositing window manager (and most distros do), you can set a ton of key bindings through gconf-editor. To access it, make sure gconf-editor is installed, then as the user running the WM (hopefully a non-privileged user), run gconf-editor. From there navigate to /->apps->metacity and bind away. You can also assign commands to key combos as well. If you're using Compiz, then install ccsm and keybindings are set under General Options. If on the odd chance you're using fluxbox, the keys are set in ~/.fluxbox/keys (hint: Mod1 == Alt).

You may want to look into xbindkeys, an old app that is windows manager agnostic.The downside is whatever WM you use will also have its keybindings (not sure who wins out if the same key is bound twice). It's keys are specified in ~/.xbindkeysrc and it runs as a daemon.

The compose key

[tepples]

"option" belongs on a toolbar.

The Option key on Macs is closer to a compose key [wikipedia.org] than anything else. It's how one enters the characters that are common in the numerous languages of Europe: press Option+e before a vowel to place the acute accent (e -> é) above it.

Re:first they need to fix a few things.

[Mr Z]

If you're going to trot out the Apple // line, you may as well know its history.

For what it's worth, the apple/command key predates not only the dos shell, but MS-DOS itself.

Not true. These were added on the Apple //e, which antedates MS-DOS. Take a look at the Apple ][+ [oldapplestuff.com] as compared to the Apple //e. [oldapplestuff.com]

Same with the alt/option key.

The closed-Apple key didn't become Option until the Apple IIgs. [old-computers.com] (The IIgs unit. [oldapplestuff.com]) They weren't even on the Apple //e Enhanced. [wikimedia.org] The familiar Macintosh Cmd and Option keys, though debuted with the original model, [aresluna.org] though there was no control key. But, then, a Mac isn't an Apple //, is it?

And "backspace" is a function on a typewriter.

So is "return" (as opposed to "enter"). Your point was again? Now get off my lawn.

--Joe

(I grew up with these machines, and I remember their sometimes frustrating differences well.)

not many know it, but it's easy to set gnome keys

[formal_entity]

On gnome Ubuntu you can go to System::Preferences::Appearence::Interface and then you check "Editable menu shortcut keys". After that close the dialog and go to any GNOME application. Try for instance gedit (the "Text Editor" application in GNOME). Now what you do is that you open the File menu, then you hover above the Open menu item and you press CTRL-A or whatever. This instantly rebinds the "Open" menu item with CTRL-A and so on.

It's a shame that GNOME had hidden this EXTREMELY useful functionality. GNOME was supposed to be easy and intuitive right? Yeah right :) ;)

I've used this a lot to fix the keybindings in GNOME which is very much broken. For example, I want CTRL-G for "Go to line" in gedit and I want to be able to open new tabs with CTRL-T like I do in the browser (which is now setting the standard because I spend so much time in the browser so that's what my brain in wired up for).

Re:What?

[rrp]

even easier: in the Keyboard section (of the Keyboard & Mouse system pref) click the modifier keys button (on the lower left). There you can change the command key to be the control key. And switch other ones around too.

Re:first they need to fix a few things.

[pushing-robot]

The closed apple (command) and open apple (option) keys were on the Apple III [old-computers.com] keyboard. The Apple III was released in 1980, which does predate MS-DOS by a year.

And my point was that "cmd" and "option" were associated with Apple long before they were a dos shell and a graphical menu. Even if the "option" key wasn't specifically labeled "option" until the Macintosh, it still predates any DOS use of "toolbars" that I'm aware of.

Regarding "return" versus "enter", I agree with the other poster: "Return" has kept its function since the typewriter days. "Backspace" has not. The average user uses the "return" key to move down and return to the beginning of the line, not to enter a command. Conversely, the average user uses the "backspace" key to delete the last character (or some other object), not to back space, to perform a leftward space in order to type another character on top of the last character. In both cases Apple's label is more accurate than IBM's.