Disable Keyboard Shortcuts in Ubuntu 14.04

This is how to disable or change keyboard shortcuts that get in the way of playing Starcraft II on Ubuntu 14.04. In order to play Starcraft II in Ubuntu 14.04 there is an annoying issue that must be solved first. Many common keyboard shortcuts involving CTRL, ALT or SHIFT trigger operating system functions, and therefore they cannot be used in Starcraft. Most notably, ALT will open the Launcher. It is hard to solve this problem because the bindings are managed by different parts of the operating system.

Sometimes there is more than one tool to change them (ccsm, gsettings, dconf-editor, gconf-editor, gconf-tool2, unity-control-center), but none of the tools has control over all of them. Unfortunately there are bugs that cause the bindings to be reset unexpectedly, so this is a kind of task that you have to carry out frequently, or find a way to automate its execution.

This is a list of shortcuts that you may want to disable to play StarCraft II on Ubuntu 14.04:

CTRL + ALT + 0 minimizes the window

CTRL + ALT + L locks the screen

ALT opens the HUD

CTRL + SHIFT + U initiates unicode chacter insertion

ALT + F10 opens first panel menu

​Tho change these, use Ubuntu All Settings (from terminal: unity-control-center)

Keyboard > Shortcuts > System = Lock Screen

Keyboard > Shortcuts > Windows = Minimize window

Keyboard > Shortcuts > Launchers = Key to show the HUD

Language Support > Language > Keyboard Input Method system -> choose none instead of IBus

There are also these shortcuts:

ALT + SPACE initiates window menu ALT + Button1 initiates window move ALT + F8 initiates window resize ALT + F4 closes the window CTRL + ALT + S shades the window CTRL + ALT + T opens a terminal

Use these shell commands to change the bindings above:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier '' gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings activate-window-menu ['"space"'] gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings begin-move ['"F7"'] gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings begin-resize ['"F8"'] gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings close ['"F4"'] gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings toggle-shaded ['"s"'] gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys terminal ''

Use these shell commands to change mouse bindings and keyboard repeat configuration:

xset r rate 170 50 xset r rate 250 40

There is one more binding that must be disabled:

ALT + F10 open first panel menu.

This one requires to install ccsm.

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager; ccsm

Go to Ubuntu Unity Plugin > General

Press the button labeled with Alt F10 to the left of "Key to open first panel menu".

Toggle the checkbox labeled "Enabled". Press Back, press Close.

To change keyboard repeat delay and repeat rate, use:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.keyboard repeat-interval 10

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.keyboard delay 160