[kde-linux] Alt-Tab just stopped working

[Duncan]

Jerome Yuzyk posted on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:54:45 -0600 as excerpted:

> KDE 4.6.5 on Fedora 15

Thanks.  A lot of folks forget to include that info.

> Alt-Tab (and Alt-F2) suddenly stopped working. I have no idea what I
> did.
> 
> How do I restart them?

Possibilities:

1) Are you sure the alt-key on your keyboard is still working?  I've had 
keys quit working before...  It's easy enough to test as part of the 
second possibility, however.

2) The keyboard shortcuts may have been changed.  Try kde settings 
(labeled system settings even tho they're mostly kde, not system, but 
anyway...), common appearance and behavior, shortcuts and gestures, 
global keyboard shortcuts.  Once there, change the dropdown to kwin, and 
look at the walk thru windows related settings.

You can change a setting by clicking on it, then on custom, then on the 
configure button beside it, which will then take input.  If it's already 
set there but you want to test your keys for #1, try clicking on one 
without a shortcut (so you don't mess up an existing setting).  You can 
hit alt, ctrl, win, shift, as modifiers, and they'll show up on the 
button, waiting for the key that's to be modified.  If alt doesn't show 
up when you hit it, kde's not sensing the alt-key any longer.  Probably 
either a broken keyboard or a changed X keyboard mapping.

3) You can actually see what X is detecting by installing if necessary, 
then running from a konsole window, a little applet called xev.  When 
it's active, any key you press or any mouse movement should generate 
output in the konsole window you ran it from, telling you what X 
detected.  If you press the alt key, you should see the output with the 
keyboard mapping for the alt key, etc.

4)  It's possible you activated the international settings.  In 
particular, with some mappings, the right alt key is remapped to 
different functionality.  That's why on some keyboards it's labeled AltGr 
or similar.  I've never messed with that so can't describe it, but have 
read about it.  Xev will let you see what the system says the keys are 
outputting, tho, and you can compare what it says about the left and 
right alt keys.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman