something is eating C-M-x

something is eating C-M-x

[Stephen Leake]

I've just installed a new VMWare virtual machine on my Windows box to
run Debian.

Something is eating C-M-x, so Emacs doesn't see it. Very frustrating
when trying to redefine elisp functions!

I'm using the LXDE window manager, and I've checked
~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml; that does not define C-A-x.

I've searched in various ways for "hotkeys" and similar terms, but have
not found what the problem is.

Any hints?

Is there some X debug program that shows how key events are handled?

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: something is eating C-M-x

[Tim Cross]

Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org> writes:

> I've just installed a new VMWare virtual machine on my Windows box to
> run Debian.
>
> Something is eating C-M-x, so Emacs doesn't see it. Very frustrating
> when trying to redefine elisp functions!
>
> I'm using the LXDE window manager, and I've checked
> ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml; that does not define C-A-x.
>
> I've searched in various ways for "hotkeys" and similar terms, but have
> not found what the problem is.
>

Could it be VMWare stealing the keys? Most VM implementations have a
'host key' or other shortcut to allow interaction with the host from
within the guest.

From an X11 position, you can possibly try using xev to see what keys
are being reported to X. It won't show you shortcut bindings, but at
least should tell you if the key presses are actually getting to the
application level within X (rather than being stolen by the VM or window
manager)

Re: something is eating C-M-x

[Óscar Fuentes]

Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org> writes:

> I've just installed a new VMWare virtual machine on my Windows box to
> run Debian.
>
> Something is eating C-M-x, so Emacs doesn't see it. Very frustrating
> when trying to redefine elisp functions!
>
> I'm using the LXDE window manager, and I've checked
> ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml; that does not define C-A-x.
>
> I've searched in various ways for "hotkeys" and similar terms, but have
> not found what the problem is.
>
> Any hints?
>
> Is there some X debug program that shows how key events are handled?

See xev

But maybe Vmware itself is eating C-M, which IIRC by default is used for
releasing keyboard+mouse input. See menu Edit -> Preferences -> Hotkeys.
You can remap that key combination or use a special shortcut for passing
C-M to the guest OS. Search the 'net for "vmware workstation
control-alt".

Re: something is eating C-M-x

[Stephen Leake]

Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> writes:

> Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org> writes:
>
>> I've just installed a new VMWare virtual machine on my Windows box to
>> run Debian.
>>
>> Something is eating C-M-x, so Emacs doesn't see it. Very frustrating
>> when trying to redefine elisp functions!
>>
>> I'm using the LXDE window manager, and I've checked
>> ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml; that does not define C-A-x.
>>
>> I've searched in various ways for "hotkeys" and similar terms, but have
>> not found what the problem is.
>>
>> Any hints?
>>
>> Is there some X debug program that shows how key events are handled?
>
> See xev

That shows that C-M-x is being eaten by something; it generates a
KeymapNotify event for the root window, while C-M-s (for example)
generates the expected KeyPress and KeyRelease events.

The docs for setxkbmap hints that perhaps C-M-x is being used to change
between keyboard maps, but "setxkbmap -query" says that's not it.

So there must be some other lowlevel keyboard event mapping going on, by
Debian or something.

> But maybe Vmware itself is eating C-M, which IIRC by default is used for
> releasing keyboard+mouse input.

VMWare does use C-M when not followed by another key to switch to the
host, but C-M-<key> works normally; I use C-M-up to switch windows in
Emacs, for example.

> See menu Edit -> Preferences -> Hotkeys.

That apparently shows the content of the <keyboard> section of
~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml, which I mentioned above; it is an easier
way to see what that file is doing. It does not show a mapping for
C-A-x.

> You can remap that key combination or use a special shortcut for
> passing C-M to the guest OS. Search the 'net for "vmware workstation
> control-alt".

I found this page:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Player-for-Windows/16.0/com.vmware.player.win.using.doc/GUID-974B0CC8-B082-4D56-9758-E74D25DDBCD1.html

Which says that no C-A-key should work, which is simply wrong.


-- 
-- Stephe