Bug 342186 - Global shortcuts do not work to control activity switching
Summary: Global shortcuts do not work to control activity switching
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 374575
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Activity Switcher (show other bugs)
Version: master
Platform: Kubuntu Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Bhushan Shah
URL:
Keywords:
: 344003 346737 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-12-24 10:25 UTC by Jasem Mutlaq
Modified: 2018-08-07 08:23 UTC (History)
34 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.3
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
2 activities with shortcutsassigned (82.79 KB, image/png)
2016-06-21 22:23 UTC, soee
Details
kglobalshortcutsrc (19.46 KB, application/octet-stream)
2018-04-12 11:45 UTC, Kolya Ay
Details
kactivitymanagerdrc (705 bytes, application/octet-stream)
2018-04-12 11:45 UTC, Kolya Ay
Details

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Description Jasem Mutlaq 2014-12-24 10:25:35 UTC
Using packages from Kubuntu-CI (unstable daily). Meta+Tab is the default for "Next Activity", pressing that doesn't do anything. I configured another global shortcut, but with the same end result.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Press Meta+Tab



Actual Results:  
Nothing happens

Expected Results:  
Next activity is switched
Comment 1 Jasem Mutlaq 2014-12-24 10:27:15 UTC
I also enabled the "Global Shortcuts" plugin in the Activities KCM but that didn't have any effect.
Comment 2 Bhushan Shah 2014-12-24 11:20:01 UTC
Those shortcuts work totally fine for me. but nevertheless I will look into it.
Comment 3 Bhushan Shah 2014-12-24 14:08:17 UTC
Okay confirmed, I had some local patches so it was working for me.
Comment 4 Jasem Mutlaq 2015-01-12 07:38:07 UTC
Any update on this? I just updated my packages today (Kubuntu KF5 daily unstable) and the problem is not fixed yet.
Comment 5 Bhushan Shah 2015-01-12 07:40:12 UTC
nope not fixed yet..
Comment 6 Bhushan Shah 2015-02-10 12:51:01 UTC
*** Bug 344003 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 Luca Beltrame 2015-02-22 11:46:40 UTC
Fixed by 727a95729f9a3e923759c702eed2294bf351e20a in plasma-desktop.
Comment 8 Nicolas F. 2015-03-27 15:15:42 UTC
Still does not work for me on Plasma 5.2.2 (Distribution: ArchLinux)

The "Global Shortcuts" plugin in System Settings->Desktop Behaviour->Activities was deactivated, but activating it did nothing to fix it. I made sure the global keyboard shortcuts for plasmashell are set correctly.
Comment 9 Bhushan Shah 2015-03-27 15:18:24 UTC
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 8:45 PM, Nicolas Frattaroli <kdebugs@fratti.ch> wrote:
> Still does not work for me on Plasma 5.2.2 (Distribution: ArchLinux)
>
> The "Global Shortcuts" plugin in System Settings->Desktop Behaviour->Activities
> was deactivated, but activating it did nothing to fix it. I made sure the
> global keyboard shortcuts for plasmashell are set correctly.

It will be fixed with Plasma 5.3 and not Plasma 5.2.2 sorry for that.
Comment 10 Bhushan Shah 2015-04-28 11:32:39 UTC
*** Bug 346737 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 davidebasilio 2015-06-17 07:17:25 UTC
(In reply to Bhushan Shah from comment #9)
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 8:45 PM, Nicolas Frattaroli <kdebugs@fratti.ch>
> wrote:
> > Still does not work for me on Plasma 5.2.2 (Distribution: ArchLinux)
> >
> > The "Global Shortcuts" plugin in System Settings->Desktop Behaviour->Activities
> > was deactivated, but activating it did nothing to fix it. I made sure the
> > global keyboard shortcuts for plasmashell are set correctly.
> 
> It will be fixed with Plasma 5.3 and not Plasma 5.2.2 sorry for that.

Hello,

I am using plasma-workspace-5.3.1 on Kubuntu 15.04 and the meta+tab hotkey only works sometimes.
It seems to work well after initial startup but it stops working after a suspend - resume cycle.
Comment 12 davidebasilio 2015-06-17 07:22:39 UTC
(In reply to davidebasilio from comment #11)
> (In reply to Bhushan Shah from comment #9)
> > On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 8:45 PM, Nicolas Frattaroli <kdebugs@fratti.ch>
> > wrote:
> > > Still does not work for me on Plasma 5.2.2 (Distribution: ArchLinux)
> > >
> > > The "Global Shortcuts" plugin in System Settings->Desktop Behaviour->Activities
> > > was deactivated, but activating it did nothing to fix it. I made sure the
> > > global keyboard shortcuts for plasmashell are set correctly.
> > 
> > It will be fixed with Plasma 5.3 and not Plasma 5.2.2 sorry for that.
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am using plasma-workspace-5.3.1 on Kubuntu 15.04 and the meta+tab hotkey
> only works sometimes.
> It seems to work well after initial startup but it stops working after a
> suspend - resume cycle.

Quick update: the shortcut starts working again after this:

$ kquitapp plasmashell
$ /usr/bin/plasmashell --shut-up &> /dev/null &
Comment 13 gelefisk 2015-07-05 12:16:22 UTC
A temporary "workaround" for those who are not willing to upgrade to 5.3:
In Desktop Settings -> Mouse Actions, you can set e.g. scrolling to Switch Activity.
Comment 14 Piotr 2015-12-03 21:09:36 UTC
I have the  same bug in Plasma 5.4

OS:  Netrunner 17 (64 bit)
System:  Linux 4.2.0-19-generic x86_64
Plasma:  5.4.3
Harware: Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
Keyboard set to "Generic 101 key PC"

Meta+Q open the activities bar, Meta+Tab does not work. Assigning a different key combination (e.g. Ctrl+Tab) has also no effect.
Comment 15 Thomas Pfeiffer 2015-12-09 14:51:30 UTC
Um, why was this bug givent he VisualDesign flag? I don't see any visual design aspect of it. Am I missing something?
Comment 16 Piotr 2016-01-20 11:22:39 UTC
> Plasma:  5.4.3
>
> Meta+Q open the activities bar, Meta+Tab does not work. Assigning a
> different key combination (e.g. Ctrl+Tab) has also no effect.

I still have this error also In Plasma 5.5.1
Comment 17 Thomas 2016-03-11 21:36:42 UTC
I can confirm this bug is still present. I just migrated from KDE4 to plasma5 on Debian Sid with Plasma 5.4.3.
Just two days before, with KDE4, Meta+Tab worked quite well.
Comment 18 Ivan Čukić 2016-03-12 14:40:00 UTC
There might be some other shortcut that is colliding with the one for activity switching.

You can try setting something else to use meta+tab, and shift+meta+tab - this will remove it from all other places hopefully. Then you go to the global keyboard shortcuts for plasma and set the 'Walk through activities' to be Meta-Tab. This should do it.
Comment 19 Thomas 2016-03-15 21:51:04 UTC
@Ivan: I cannot confirm this. In my case, if I try to set any keyboard shortcut to "meta+tab" in systemsettings5, the meta key isn't recognized at all (neither the left nor right meta key, that is). I always end up with the shortcut being just "tab".

I'd rule out a malfunctioning keyboard: On tty1, "showkey" happily recognizes both "meta" keys.
Comment 20 soee 2016-06-21 22:17:34 UTC
Activities shortcuts does nto work on Neon - Plamsma 5.6.5 and Frameworks 5.23. I think this was broken somewhere in Frameworks 5.23 as on Kubutnu it wrked pretty well (Plasma 5.6.4 + Frameworks 5.22).

Please reopen this bug.
Comment 21 soee 2016-06-21 22:23:14 UTC
Created attachment 99655 [details]
2 activities with shortcutsassigned

As you can see on the screen, i have 2 activities defined with shorcuts for each of them (it was hard to assign them from activities inspector but i did it through shortcuts module). This shortcuts dont have any effect though.
Comment 22 Marco Parillo 2016-06-21 22:56:18 UTC
On Kubuntu YY (to become 16.10) KInfocenter reports Plasma 5.6.5 and  Frameworks 5.23. I could create a new activity from the 'Hamburger' menu, then use the Other tab to assign ctrl+meta+a, and click Create. When I go back to the Activity, the shortcut for switching to the activity is lost.

On Manjaro (fully updated) KInfocenter reports Plasma 5.6.4 and  Frameworks 5.22. I could create a new activity from the 'Hamburger' menu, then use the Other tab to assign ctrl+meta+a, and click Create. When I go back to the Activity, the shortcut for switching to the activity is still stored in the Other tab, but the shortcut seems to not actually switch activities.
Comment 23 Marco Parillo 2016-06-22 07:48:51 UTC
(In reply to Marco Parillo from comment #22)
> On Kubuntu YY (to become 16.10) KInfocenter reports Plasma 5.6.5 and 
> Frameworks 5.23. I could create a new activity from the 'Hamburger' menu,
> then use the Other tab to assign ctrl+meta+a, and click Create. When I go
> back to the Activity, the shortcut for switching to the activity is lost.
> 
> On Manjaro (fully updated) KInfocenter reports Plasma 5.6.4 and  Frameworks
> 5.22. I could create a new activity from the 'Hamburger' menu, then use the
> Other tab to assign ctrl+meta+a, and click Create. When I go back to the
> Activity, the shortcut for switching to the activity is still stored in the
> Other tab, but the shortcut seems to not actually switch activities.

On both, I can use meta+tab to cycle between started activities.
Comment 24 Jasem Mutlaq 2016-06-22 07:54:37 UTC
On KDE Neon with latest packages, Meta+Tab switches the next activity correctly.
Comment 25 soee 2016-06-22 08:55:16 UTC
(In reply to Jasem Mutlaq from comment #24)
> On KDE Neon with latest packages, Meta+Tab switches the next activity
> correctly.

Try to assign custom shortcuts for each activity.
Comment 26 Gábor Katona 2016-11-29 21:31:13 UTC
(In reply to Marco Parillo from comment #22)

I also have this problem on Opensuse Tumbleweed running Plasma 5.8.4, Frameworks 5.28.0, Qt 5.7.0.

The Meta+Tab for switching activity, and the Meta+Q for the activity manager DO work, but assigning a shortcut to the activities doesn't have effect. 

Moreover, I have the following finding maybe related to the hotkey problem. I had 3 activities, deleted them (because of not working shortcuts) and created again. After this I have 6 activities in the global shortcuts menu, 3 for the old, deleted ones and 3 for the new. There should be some information exchange problem between the activity manager and the shortcut management.
Comment 27 Robby Engelmann 2017-01-16 10:21:31 UTC
still: on recent openSUSE Tumbleweed (incl. 5.9beta) setting specific shortcuts to activities does not work.
Comment 28 Gábor Katona 2017-01-29 19:20:06 UTC
Is there any hope it will be fixed in the near future? In KDE4 it was fine and I really miss it.
Comment 29 soee 2017-03-27 14:12:30 UTC
As it still exists in Plasma 5.9 and doesn't looks like it will be fixed in 5.10, here is my workaround for it:

Check activities list to see theit ID-s:
#qdbus org.kde.ActivityManager /ActivityManager/Activities ListActivities

In System Settings -> Shorcuts define Custom Shortcuts:

New -> Global Shortcus -> DBUS Command

remote program: org.kde.ActivityManager
remote object: /ActivityManager/Activities
function: SetCurrentActivity
arguments: [paste activity ID]
Comment 30 Gábor Katona 2017-03-28 18:47:00 UTC
Wow, thanks! It works like charm. 

But if it is so simple, why it is still broken? Nevertheless, now it works. Thank you once more.
Comment 31 Andras Soltesz 2017-05-30 15:41:48 UTC
I also have this problem on KDE Neon 5.9.5.

I think this should have a much higher priority because Activities is a killer feature of KDE and having it half-working is very unfortunate.

The workaround above works for me so I am happy ATM but would be nice to have this fixed.
Comment 32 Diego Cerdan 2017-11-29 14:57:51 UTC
I have the same problem with activities shortcuts.

I'm using Kubuntu 17.10, Plasma 5.10.5 and KDE Frameworks 5.38.

I had to use the ugly workaround of sending DBUS commands. At least it works perfectly.
Comment 33 Alexander Mentyu 2017-12-02 08:08:00 UTC
Setting custom shortcuts for prev/next activities works in:

Distribution: KDE neon Developer Edition - Stable Branches
Plasma: 5.11.4
Frameworks: 5.41.0
Qt: 5.9.2
Kernel 4.10.0-40-generic
Type: 64-bit
Comment 34 David Edmundson 2018-04-10 18:05:07 UTC
Is the original bug still an issue for someone here?
Comment 35 Kolya Ay 2018-04-10 18:22:04 UTC
It still doesn't work for me. I mean I can't assign shortcut to directly switch to specific activity and have to use hack mentioned above. I'm on Debian testing (Plasma 5.12.4). Which version is it intended to be fixed in?
Comment 36 David Edmundson 2018-04-10 20:49:56 UTC
There's no claim to have fixed it.

I also have no information.

So, without using your hacks. Can I see your ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc
Comment 37 Kolya Ay 2018-04-12 11:45:00 UTC
Created attachment 111969 [details]
kglobalshortcutsrc

Sure. Here is I think relevant section:

[ActivityManager]
_k_friendly_name=Plasma
switch-to-activity-6b3abc78-2313-438c-81c5-ccfa0b842e6f=Meta+W,none,
switch-to-activity-9c31e73b-cf44-4d8b-a557-85cdc7a0fb08=Meta+Q,none,
switch-to-activity-bb55df27-1598-4422-b84b-4eb7f8889cbd=Meta+E,Meta+E,
switch-to-activity-bdd19798-b020-42b3-adbe-361eca468f38=Meta+R,none,

`kglobalshorcutsrc` and `kactivitymanagerdrc` attached

2018-04-10 23:49 GMT+03:00 David Edmundson <bugzilla_noreply@kde.org>:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=342186
>
> --- Comment #36 from David Edmundson <kde@davidedmundson.co.uk> ---
> There's no claim to have fixed it.
>
> I also have no information.
>
> So, without using your hacks. Can I see your ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc
>
> --
> You are receiving this mail because:
> You are on the CC list for the bug.
Comment 38 Kolya Ay 2018-04-12 11:45:08 UTC
Created attachment 111970 [details]
kactivitymanagerdrc
Comment 39 Ivan Čukić 2018-08-07 08:03:53 UTC
The original report is about Meta+Tab while the remaining bug seems to be the 'switch to *' global shortcut. Marking as duplicate.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 374575 ***
Comment 40 Jasem Mutlaq 2018-08-07 08:23:53 UTC
This bug is resolved for me. Meta+Tab works in switching activity. I'm on KDE Neon with KF5 5.48 and Qt 5.11.1