strange behaviour in fluxbox

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: strange behaviour in fluxbox
started by: christosvas

Posted by christosvas on Oct. 01 2004,16:01

I was trying to make a new key shortcut using the file "keys" of fluxbox for running mc with a new line as:
Mod1 z :ExecCommand mc &
This means when in fluxbox press Alt-z and mc will show up.
I put the line in file "keys" in ".fluxbox" directory under /home/dsl.
But when i restarted fluxbox i show that my change takes no effect. After a little research i found out that the "keys" file to be modified is in /etc/X11/fluxbox.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening ?
Shouldn't it be that the file under /home/dsl/.fluxbox is to be used for user dsl ?
thankw in advance.

Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 02 2004,00:45

If you have a keys file in ~/.fluxbox it should be used instead of the system default. Also, the "&" is unnecessary in the keys file.

Midnight Commander is a terminal application, which means you have to launch a term with mc as an argument. So try this:
Mod1 Z :ExecCommand rxvt -e mc

Edit: Keep in mind that Alt+z is a fairly common hotkey combination within applications. If it's set as a hotkey in Fluxbox, it may not be passed to an application which uses it. You may want to consider Alt+Shift+z or Alt+Ctrl+z...or even map the Windows keys instead (if you have it). I've got most of my fluxbox actions mapped to windows keys just so I don't interfere with built-in hotkeys of various programs.