Change Inter-VM Copy/Paste Shortcut?

[ryan....@gmail.com]

Hello,

Is there a way to change Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V to something like Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V or Meta+C and Meta+V?

As I try out Qubes for the first time, I find it clashes with my most heavily used shortcuts for other things (like interacting with the terminal).

[Andrew David Wong]

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Yes, these shortcuts are configurable in /etc/qubes/guid.conf (in dom0).

There are sample values under "global," including secure_copy_sequence
and secure_paste_sequence. You can define these with your preferred
key combinations. (Don't forget to uncomment those lines.)

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[Markus Kilås]

On 06/25/2016 02:58 AM, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> On 2016-06-24 12:16, ryan....@gmail.com wrote:
>> Hello,
>
>> Is there a way to change Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V to
>> something like Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V or Meta+C and
>> Meta+V?
>
>> As I try out Qubes for the first time, I find it clashes with my
>> most heavily used shortcuts for other things (like interacting with
>> the terminal).
>
>
> Yes, these shortcuts are configurable in /etc/qubes/guid.conf (in dom0).
>
> There are sample values under "global," including secure_copy_sequence
> and secure_paste_sequence. You can define these with your preferred
> key combinations. (Don't forget to uncomment those lines.)
>
>

Any chance the defaults could be changed in a future version?
Having defaults working well for most people could have a value and make
it easier for new users even if it is possible to customize at will.

In my opinion having those starting with Ctrl+Alt+... would be more
conventional for shortcuts that are "global/desktop/VM-wide".
See for example:
- Ctrl+Alt+F? for switching virtual terminal
- Ctrl+Alt+Del for shutdown/reboot
- Ctrl+Alt+Backspace for killing X (?)
- Ctrl+Alt as the special key combination in KVM and VMWare

While Ctrl+Shift+... could be used by local applications. Most notably
as mentioned above for the terminal applications.

However, a workaround I found for the terminal clash is to instead
re-learn to use Shift+Insert for pasting.

Cheers,
Markus

[Niels Kobschaetzki]

I would switch immediately back to ctrl+shift+c/v because I have to use
those shortcuts all the time. One example: copying passwords out of my
password manager which is in its own domain to the other domains. Or
when I blog I might have to copy stuff from my untrusted-domain to my
blogging-domain etc.
ctrl+alt is just worse imho (except maybe when caps is mapped to ctrl,
then it might work).

>However, a workaround I found for the terminal clash is to instead
>re-learn to use Shift+Insert for pasting.

That's the only part where I found it annoying. The first time in years
I switched to using the mouse in the terminal. But maybe I should just
switch to ctrl+ins and shift+ins like I have to do at work on my
windows-machine when using my ssh-client. Those shortcuts work in
gnome-terminal as well.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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On Sat, Jun 25, 2016 at 11:52:08AM +0200, Niels Kobschaetzki wrote:
> On 16/06/25 10:59, Markus Kilås wrote:
> > Any chance the defaults could be changed in a future version?
> > Having defaults working well for most people could have a value and make
> > it easier for new users even if it is possible to customize at will.

No, we're not going to change the default at this stage. The current one
works for almost every Qubes user, for years.

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[ryan....@gmail.com]

On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 2:52:21 AM UTC-7, Niels Kobschätzki wrote:
>
> I would switch immediately back to ctrl+shift+c/v because I have to use
> those shortcuts all the time. One example: copying passwords out of my
> password manager which is in its own domain to the other domains. Or
> when I blog I might have to copy stuff from my untrusted-domain to my
> blogging-domain etc.
> ctrl+alt is just worse imho (except maybe when caps is mapped to ctrl,
> then it might work).
>
> >However, a workaround I found for the terminal clash is to instead
> >re-learn to use Shift+Insert for pasting.
>
> That's the only part where I found it annoying. The first time in years
> I switched to using the mouse in the terminal. But maybe I should just
> switch to ctrl+ins and shift+ins like I have to do at work on my
> windows-machine when using my ssh-client. Those shortcuts work in
> gnome-terminal as well.

Yeah, the problem is, I am likely to use copy/paste to terminal a lot more than between domains in day-to-day work, and there aren't a ton of other, simple one-handed shortcuts. Shift+insert is awful.

It's unfortunate that ctrl+c is so overloaded (being the kill command for terminals). I *think* what I'd like to do is use Windows_Key (Meta) + C for copy, but so far I haven't figured out how to get that to work. "Meta" didn't work in the config file noted above. Maybe I'll end up going Meta+C for the terminal copy. Need to circle back to this...

[cubit]

25. Jun 2016 16:47 by ryan....@gmail.com:

I *think* what I'd like to do is use Windows_Key (Meta) + C for copy, but so far I haven't figured out how to get that to work. "Meta" didn't work in the config file noted above.

To use the Windows Key, it is `Mod4`

"Mod4-c"

"Mod4-v"

[ryan....@gmail.com]

On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 10:49:39 AM UTC-7, cubit wrote:

> To use the Windows Key, it is `Mod4`
>
>
> "Mod4-c"
> "Mod4-v"

Thanks!

[Rune Philosof]

On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 7:49:39 PM UTC+2, cubit wrote:
> To use the Windows Key, it is `Mod4`
>
>
> "Mod4-c"
> "Mod4-v"

How did you figure that out?
I haven't been able to find documentation with a list available modifier names.
I tried using the names from `xev`'s output with no luck.

[a...@it-minds.dk]

I have no idea what xev gives, but mod4 is pretty much the 'super' key (or Windows key). 'Mod' is usually the Alt (left Alt) key.

I know this because I used tiling window managers a lot, and from there I knew that Mod4 = Windows key.

I don't know what the deeper meaning is, where it's bound, or why it has that name :)

[cooloutac]

was just about to post, tk goodness...lol