[SOLVED] ~/.icewm/keys stopped working

[Member ok-ok]

Hi
,the ~/.icewm/keys file no longer works therefore all my keyboard shortcuts no longer function. When using the file manager as I do to view them the keys icon has changed from orange to black this coincides with the inoperability of the shortcuts. Has anyone any suggestions, many thanks.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by BobC.

[Moderator BobC]

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I suggest either looking at the properties of the file, or using a Terminal to display them, and posting the results.

In a terminal I’d say type the command below and post the results here:
ls -la ~/.icewm

You might as well post the list as it shouldn’t be very long. My keys file shows up as:
-rw-r--r-- 1 bobc bobc 5123 Dec 25 00:29 keys

The permissions say I can read and write the file.

Maybe you should tell us what you installed and how you installed it, and if you added or changed anything after that, or anything strange happened. You are the first person I’ve heard of with a problem like this. I assume you are new to antiX. What systems are you familiar with? Most people don’t try to associate files with colors…

[Member Xecure]

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ok-ok wrote:

When using the file manager as I do to view them the keys icon has changed from orange to black this coincides with the inoperability of the shortcuts.

My guess is that it has become executable or your user has lost ownership of the file, as BobC suggests.
Please provide the output of the terminal command that BobC suggested, or you could specify the file
ls -l ~/.icewm/keys
If you see something like
-rwxr-xr-x
or your user is not the owner of this file, rename it, create a new empty file with the name “keys” and copy the content from the renamed file to the new keys file. Reboot and see if it now works.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Xecure.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Xecure. Reason: fixing code tags again

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Moderator BobC]

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Depending on the icon set being used, orange might be a text file and black a script. But what bothers me is how did it get that way, and were other things changed as well?

We all need to learn new things to run a system we aren’t used to. If you are using Rox-Filer (the default file manager), go find and watch a couple of Youtube How to videos on it, and maybe a couple more on antiX to try to improve your familiarity and comfort level with the system.

Maybe start with the video on this page https://antixlinux.com/ and then the Rox-Filer one from the Video Tutorials page

[Moderator BobC]

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ok-ok,

I saw your posts I think on Facebook, and if by chance you edited and saved that keys file as root, maybe it would cause this problem?

[Member ok-ok]

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This is the terminal view of ~/.icewm.
I have tried a chmod to 0755…no difference,below I am showing a view of the keys file,
you mention a bobc bobc file it does not show up, in fact I can’t recall ever seeing this
file in any listing.The nearest I have found were /usr/share/terminfo/b/bobcat and at
I have very strong suspicion that this malfunction happened after a recent upgrade.

/usr/share/terminfo/s/sbobcat

$ lsa
0200 total 120
0755 drwxr-xr-x 2 peter peter 4096 Mar 24 10:56 .
0755 drwxr-xr-x 53 peter peter 4096 Mar 24 11:47 ..
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 129 Mar 2 22:34 focus_mode
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 4935 Mar 24 10:53 keys
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 4934 Mar 24 08:53 keys~
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 2389 Mar 24 10:53 .keys.un~
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 3907 Jan 19 12:07 menu
0777 lrwxrwxrwx 1 peter peter 48 Feb 5 2020 menu-applications -> /usr/share/desktop-menu/.icewm/menu-applications
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 3993 Feb 5 2020 menu-numix-bevel
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 4012 Feb 5 2020 menu-numix-square
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 3973 Feb 5 2020 menu-papirus
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 166 Jun 28 2015 personal
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 38806 Mar 21 13:06 preferences
0755 -rwxr-xr-x 1 peter peter 12 Mar 31 2015 startup
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 400 Mar 17 10:31 theme
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 702 Feb 5 2020 toolbar
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 726 Feb 5 2020 toolbar-numix-bevel
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 732 Feb 5 2020 toolbar-numix-square
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 702 Feb 5 2020 toolbar-papirus
0644 -rw-r–r– 1 peter peter 1142 Oct 22 2010 winoptions

$ cat keys
pp########################################################################
#Sample icewm keys for antiX.
########################################################################
### BobC 08/14/19 – removed Alt+Ctrl Grow and shrink keys – don’t work, mute wasn’t working either, move to Alt+Ctrl+KP_Insert (0 key),
########################################################################
### BobC 08/13/19 – added Alt+Ctrl Grow and shrink keys to fit with WinArrange in preferences

#######key “Alt+Ctrl+KP_Add” wingrid-grow.sh # +-Grow window
#######key “Alt+Ctrl+KP_Subtract” wingrid-shrink.sh # –Shrink window

########################################################################
### BobC 08/12/19 – fixed lower volume key
### BobC 08/04/19 – multimedia keys added
########################################################################

###Added the antixscreenshot on the Print key (same as MX)
key “Print” antixscreenshot.sh

###Added the more common multimedia keys
###Multimedia keys
key “XF86AudioLowerVolume” amixer sset Master 5%-
key “XF86AudioRaiseVolume” amixer sset Master 5%+
key “XF86AudioMute” amixer sset Master toggle
key “XF86AudioPlay” xmms –play-pause
key “XF86AudioStop” xmms –stop
key “XF86AudioPrev” xmms –rew
key “XF86AudioNext” xmms –fwd
key “XF86AudioRecord” simplescreenrecorder
key “XF86HomePage” desktop-defaults-run -b –new-window
key “XF86Search” desktop-defaults-run -b http://www.duckduckgo.com
key “XF86Eject” unplugdrive.sh
key “XF86Calculator” /bin/sh -c “galculator || gnome-calculator || xcalc || ( type bc >/dev/null 2>&1 && xterm -e bc -l)”
key “XF86Mail” desktop-defaults-run -e

#Switch screens – this is only useful if you have multiple screens
#switchkey “Super+p” icewm-menu-xrandr

########################################################################
### BobC 06/15/19 – all setting same as std antiX 19b1 except the following:
# Wingrid on Ctrl+ 1 thru 0 on number row
key “Alt+Ctrl+1” wingrid-left.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+2” wingrid-right.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+3” wingrid-top.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+4” wingrid-bottom.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+5” wingrid-topleft.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+6” wingrid-topright.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+7” wingrid-bottomleft.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+8” wingrid-bottomright.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+9” wingrid-maximize.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+0” wingrid-close.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+minus” wingrid-shrink.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+equal” wingrid-grow.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+plus” wingrid-grow.sh
key “Alt+Ctrl+grave” wingrid-center.sh
# Wingrid on Ctrl+ KP rose
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Left” wingrid-left.sh # Left-Move window to Left
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Right” wingrid-right.sh # Right-Move window to Right
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Up” wingrid-top.sh # Up-Move window Top
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Down” wingrid-bottom.sh # Down-Move window to Bottom
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Home” wingrid-topleft.sh # Home-Move window to Top Left
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Prior” wingrid-topright.sh # PgUp-Move window Top Right
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_End” wingrid-bottomleft.sh # End-Move window to Bottom Left
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Next” wingrid-bottomright.sh # PgDn-Move window to Bottom Right
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Insert” wingrid-maximize.sh # 0-Maximize window
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Begin” wingrid-center.sh # 5-Center window
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Delete” wingrid-close.sh # .-Close window
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Add” wingrid-grow.sh # +-Grow window
key “Ctrl+Shift+KP_Subtract” wingrid-shrink.sh # –Shrink window
# app-select on Ctrl+Space
key “Ctrl+Space” app-select
########################################################################

# suggested
key “Alt+F2” gexec
#key “Ctrl+Shift+Delete” desktop-session-exit
key “Ctrl+Alt+e” clipit
key “Ctrl+Alt+t” desktop-defaults-run -t
#key “Ctrl+Shift+t” desktop-defaults-run -r -t
#key “Ctrl+Alt+u” sudoku
#key “Ctrl+Alt+i” desktop-defaults-run -i
#key “Ctrl+Alt+o” okular
#key “Ctrl+Alt+p” desktop-defaults-run -t htop
key “Ctrl+Shift+p” xiphos
key “Ctrl+Alt+a” /usr/bin/bibletime
key “Ctrl+Alt+s” antixscreenshot.sh
key “Ctrl+Alt+d” gksu synaptic
#key “Ctrl+Alt+f” FBReader
#key “Ctrl+Shift+f” desktop-defaults-run -r -fm
key “Ctrl+Alt+g” desktop-defaults-run -te
key “Ctrl+Shift+g” leafpad
#key “Ctrl+Alt+h” desktop-defaults-run -b file:/usr/share/antiX/FAQ/index.html
key “Ctrl+Alt+k” desktop-session-exit
key “Ctrl+Alt+l” links2 -g
key “Ctrl+Alt+z” gworldclock
key “Ctrl+Alt+x” xkill
key “Ctrl+Alt+c” antixcc.sh
key “Ctrl+Alt+v” vlc
key “Ctrl+Alt+b” firefox-esr

#Set Volume
key “Alt+Ctrl+KP_Divide” amixer -c 0 set Master 5- # lower volume
key “Alt+Ctrl+KP_Multiply” amixer -c 0 set Master 5+ # raise volume
key “Alt+Ctrl+KP_Insert” amixer sset Master toggle # mute on/off

# F* keys examples
# Open a terminal
#key “F1” desktop-defaults-run -t
# Open a dialog to run programs
#key “F2” gexec
# Open file manager
#key “F3” desktop-defaults-run -fm
# Open browser
#key “F4” desktop-defaults-run -b
# Open antiX control centre
#key “F5” antixcc.sh
# Take a screenshot
#key “F6” antixscreenshot.sh
peter@antix1:~/.icewm

[Moderator BobC]

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Ok-ok, my userid is bobc, so my home directory is /home/bobc and my files are owned by bobc and the group name is also bobc. You can find a Linux command tutorial on YouTube.

As for your problem, my suspicion is that the first line of your keys file begins with pp instead of # and that is causing IceWM to ignore the file because of those invalid characters. Be careful editing configuration files, as anything invalid could cause very unexpected and unusual results.

Use the editor to remove the pp from the first line and save the file, then go to the logout menu and restart IceWM.

See if that works…

[Member ok-ok]

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RESOLVED.

Many many thanks, it was the pp that threw everything out. To me this is very strange
for I know that the shebang #! is essential in scripts: bash, perl, python etc. but I
had no idea it would affect any other than a 0700 family file…amazing.

[Member ok-ok]

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SOLVED!

Many thanks for your thoughtful suggestions but it has now been solved, a very weird
situation; the top few lines of the ~/icewm/keys file consist of hashes, somehow
inadvertently I had replaced the first two hashes with pp.

[Moderator BobC]

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Yes, typing the “pp” was not the problem, though, until you saved the changes.

The keys file is not a script.

Comment lines begin with #, like scripts but the file’s format and use is defined by IceWM.

I’m glad its working now 🙂

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