How to disable control-alt-arrow Gnome window manager control for RedHat Linux

Question

How do I disable the Gnome window manger keyboard control for control-alt-arrow (left, right, up, and down arrows) to scroll between workspaces?

This is a key binding I use in Emacs and the window manager is snarfing it before it gets to Emacs.

Answer 1

For RedHat it is under menu item Applications -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts is the dialog where these key bindings are kept. Select the row to disable and hit the backspace key to remove a shortcut.

Answer 2

I'm running Ubuntu and all the keyboard shortcuts gnome uses are under System, Preferences, Keyboard shortcuts. I'm fairly sure it would be the same for all distributions that use gnome.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Window Management section, you can disable or change the key combination that performs that action.

You can also find many other useful key bindings there.

Answer 3

If you are running Compiz you need to open up the preferences for the window manager. The key bindings are all against the effects. I'm not running Compiz so I can't look any further for you, hope it helps.

Answer 4

I wanted to free up the same keys for use in Eclipse, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x (Gnome 2), but I couldn't find any Workspace Switcher shortcuts in Applications -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

I was able to delete the unwanted shortcuts by running gconf-editor and visiting the node /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_to_workspace_down (and nearby keys) and setting the value as disabled.

Answer 5

I needed to unbind ctrl+alt+down for Eclipse too, and for me it was bound in two places. Firsty in metacity, as described by seanf, but also in Compiz cube. I don't have ready access to the CompizConfig gui, so found that binding in gconf-editor as well, under the key /apps/compiz/plugins/cube/allscreens/options/unfold_key, which I set to Disabled (the capital 'D' seems to be how Compiz does it)