April 14, 2008 at 23:31Shortcuts on Linux
Inspired by the topic about Windows hotkeys ( Article 1 and Article 2 )
Hotkeys can be conditionally divided into the following groups:
System-wide hotkeys
Keyboard shortcuts for working in the console
X-Window system
keyboard shortcuts KDE medium keyboard shortcuts
System-wide hotkeys
We all know the “ shortcut from three fingers ": Ctrl + Alt + Del. On Windows, it was used to invoke the process window. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del again rebooted the computer. On Linux, the response to pressing this combination is specified in the / etc / inittab file:
# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca :: ctrlaltdel: / sbin / shutdown -t3 -r now
The –r now parameter of the shutdown command means that the system needs to be rebooted (-r) now (now). You may have another command, for example, reboot, or even the reaction to Ctrl + Alt + Del may be disabled.
The next system-wide key combination is Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. Pressing this key combination will restart the X Window server if it is running.
Keyboard shortcuts for working in the console
There can be several virtual consoles in Linux (usually 6). Alt + Fn key combinations allow you to switch between them, where n is the console number. However, this key combination will only work if you are currently working in the console, and not in KDE or another graphical environment. For example, you are currently working in console 1, and you need to switch to console 4, then press the key combination Alt + F4, to switch back, press Alt + F1.
Pressing the combination Alt + F7, as a rule, switches you to the graphic mode - the X Window System.
The Tab key in the console (or terminal system of the X Window System) implements command line autocomplete. Suppose you forget the exact name of the command with which the program you need is launched. Enter the initial letters of the command and press Tab - the system itself will complement the command line. If you hear a sound signal after pressing Tab, it means that there are several possible options, for example, you entered da, and the system found two (or more) commands that start with “da”, and it does not know which command to “enter” into command line In this case, press Tab again to see the entire list of commands that start with “da”.
You found the command you need, entered it, the program displayed some information on the screen. But the output of the program turned out to be so voluminous that it did not fit on the screen. You can, of course, redirect the output to a file or less program, but if you will not use this output in the future, you do not need to do this. Just scroll through it with the keyboard shortcuts Shift + PgUp and Shift + PgDn.
X-Window Keyboard Shortcuts
Now you enjoy working in the X Window. But sometimes you need to switch to the console, because you just got tired of the graphic terminal. This can be done using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Fn, where n is the console number (1..6). You can switch back using the keyboard shortcut Alt + F7.
To change the resolution of the monitor you do not need to run any configurator. Just press Ctrl + “+” (on the numeric keypad) to increase the resolution (to the maximum allowable) or Ctrl + “-“ (on the numeric keypad) to decrease.
A quick tip: if you have a weak board (for example, RivaTNT2 Vanta 8MB) and your favorite toy (of course, a tuxracer) “slows down”, reduce the resolution to 640x480.
Since virtually no one works with a “clean” X Window System with its classic window managers, I don’t see the point of considering additional key combinations. Let's go straight to KDE.
KDE Keyboard Shortcuts
Microsoft offers to start working in Windows by pressing the Start key. KDE uses a button labeled K (or rather, with the logo of KDE itself) for this. If you have a large monitor (19 inches or more) and you are too lazy to drag the mouse (which you forgot to clean) from the upper right to the lower left corner, press Alt + F1, and the KDE menu will appear at the current position of the mouse pointer.
If you need to run one command, it is unlikely that you need to run the terminal (provided that the called program is graphical), press Alt + F2 to open the program launch window - enter a command or select it from the list and click Run.
Fig. 1. The program launch window
You can switch between running programs using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab - as in Windows. If there is chaos on the desktop, then it's time to switch to another desktop. You can switch between desktops using the key combination Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Fn, where n is the number of the desktop you need. Remember that the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab only works within the current desktop. If you have dozens of two programs running on the first desktop and not a single one on the second one, when you press Alt + Tab on the second table you will see the message “No tasks”.
You can view the entire list of tasks by pressing Alt + F5. If you didn’t like a certain process, you can kill it by calling the task manager (Ctrl + Escape key combination).
Doesn't the keyboard layout switch in the usual way? Doesn't help, neither Ctrl, nor Ctrl + Shift? Then press the key combination Ctrl + Alt + K. This combination will always work in KDE.
Keyboard shortcuts for working with the clipboard are the most common - Ctrl + C (copy), Ctrl + X (cut) and Ctrl + V (paste). In addition to these three combinations, KDE provides the user with two more:
Ctrl + Alt + V - show the clipboard menu
Ctrl + Alt + R - “manual” work with the clipboard
But what about working with windows? The combination of Alt + F4, as in Windows, closes the window, and Alt + F3 - displays a menu of actions with the window.
The Ctrl + Alt + Esc combination that calls the xkill program is very useful. After calling it, the mouse pointer turns into a skull with bones. Clicking a “skull” on some window, it will be destroyed, even if the program “hung”. To exit xkill without destroying the window, press Esc.
In Windows, you could take a picture of the screen by pressing the Print Screen key. On Linux, this can also be done, but to photograph the entire desktop, press Ctrl + Print Screen, and the active window - Alt + Print Screen. After that, the resulting image will be placed on the clipboard and it can be pasted into any KDE-application that supports graphics. However, I recommend taking screenshots with special programs, for example, ksnapshot. The images obtained using this program will be much better than the images obtained by the method proposed above, and they will also take up little disk space (because the ksnapshot program uses the PNG format).
Some more useful shortcuts:
Alt + PtScr + S - immediately flush the buffer to disk
Alt + PtScr + U - immediately disconnect disks
Alt + PtScr + B - immediate reboot (acts as a reset).
If there is a hard hang or braking (for example, due to hardware glitches), but the kernel has not fallen into a panic yet, successively pressing these combinations with a slight delay of a couple of seconds will be much safer than resetting
When working with the console Ctrl + W and Ctrl + U - removal of one word and a whole line, respectively.
In the terminal, while the program is running, press Ctrl-S. This pauses program output.
Ctrl-Q - resume the output of the program :)
Alt + PtScr + K - beat the program, which now occupies the console. It helps a lot if X-sy flies due to crooked firewood.
Ctrl-L to clear the terminal window.
Ctrl-A to the beginning of the line
Ctrl-E to the end of the line
Ctrl-R search command history back (often used)
Esc. insert the last argument of the last command
Ctrl-V insert the next character literally (escape)
Ctrl-K delete to the end of the line
Ctrl-U delete to the beginning of the line
Ctrl-W delete the previous word
Esc {execute file completion and put the result in curly brackets for the shell
(try type “ls -l. {” in the home directory)
...
And many, many other things. And if not enough, you can add to .inputrc.
Full list (Alt + SysRq + character) (if anyone translates I will be very grateful!)
'R' - Turns off keyboard raw mode and sets it to XLATE.
'k' - Secure Access Key (SAK) Kills all programs on the current virtual
console. NOTE: See important comments below in SAK section.
'b' - Will immediately reboot the system without syncing or unmounting
your disks.
'c' - Will perform a kexec reboot in order to take a crashdump.
'd' - Shows all locks that are held.
'o' - Will shut your system off (if configured and supported).
's' - Will attempt to sync all mounted filesystems.
'u' - Will attempt to remount all mounted filesystems read-only.
'p' - Will dump the current registers and flags to your console.
't' - Will dump a list of current tasks and their information to your
console.
'm' - Will dump current memory info to your console.
'n' - Used to make RT tasks nice-able
'v' - Dumps Voyager SMP processor info to your console.
'w' - Dumps tasks that are in uninterruptable (blocked) state.
'x' - Used by xmon interface on ppc / powerpc platforms.
'0' - '9' - Sets the console log level, controlling which kernel messages
will be printed to your console. ('0', for example would make
it so that only emergency messages like PANICs or OOPSes would
make it to your console.)
'F' - Will call oom_kill to kill a memory hog process.
'e' - Send a SIGTERM to all processes, except for init.
'g' - Used by kgdb on ppc platforms.
'i' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, except for init.
'h' - Will display help (actually any other key than those listed
above will display help. but 'h' is easy to remember :-)
How to change keyboard shortcuts in KDE? Open the Control Center and go to the Appearance, Hot Keys (or Key Bindings section in the second version of KDE).
Fig. 2. Key bindings
Now summarize and create a table with key combinations. Print it and use it until you learn the combinations you need in your daily work.
Hotkeys can be conditionally divided into the following groups:
System-wide hotkeys
Keyboard shortcuts for working in the console
X-Window system
keyboard shortcuts KDE medium keyboard shortcuts
System-wide hotkeys
We all know the “ shortcut from three fingers ": Ctrl + Alt + Del. On Windows, it was used to invoke the process window. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del again rebooted the computer. On Linux, the response to pressing this combination is specified in the / etc / inittab file:
# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca :: ctrlaltdel: / sbin / shutdown -t3 -r now
The –r now parameter of the shutdown command means that the system needs to be rebooted (-r) now (now). You may have another command, for example, reboot, or even the reaction to Ctrl + Alt + Del may be disabled.
The next system-wide key combination is Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. Pressing this key combination will restart the X Window server if it is running.
Keyboard shortcuts for working in the console
There can be several virtual consoles in Linux (usually 6). Alt + Fn key combinations allow you to switch between them, where n is the console number. However, this key combination will only work if you are currently working in the console, and not in KDE or another graphical environment. For example, you are currently working in console 1, and you need to switch to console 4, then press the key combination Alt + F4, to switch back, press Alt + F1.
Pressing the combination Alt + F7, as a rule, switches you to the graphic mode - the X Window System.
The Tab key in the console (or terminal system of the X Window System) implements command line autocomplete. Suppose you forget the exact name of the command with which the program you need is launched. Enter the initial letters of the command and press Tab - the system itself will complement the command line. If you hear a sound signal after pressing Tab, it means that there are several possible options, for example, you entered da, and the system found two (or more) commands that start with “da”, and it does not know which command to “enter” into command line In this case, press Tab again to see the entire list of commands that start with “da”.
You found the command you need, entered it, the program displayed some information on the screen. But the output of the program turned out to be so voluminous that it did not fit on the screen. You can, of course, redirect the output to a file or less program, but if you will not use this output in the future, you do not need to do this. Just scroll through it with the keyboard shortcuts Shift + PgUp and Shift + PgDn.
X-Window Keyboard Shortcuts
Now you enjoy working in the X Window. But sometimes you need to switch to the console, because you just got tired of the graphic terminal. This can be done using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Fn, where n is the console number (1..6). You can switch back using the keyboard shortcut Alt + F7.
To change the resolution of the monitor you do not need to run any configurator. Just press Ctrl + “+” (on the numeric keypad) to increase the resolution (to the maximum allowable) or Ctrl + “-“ (on the numeric keypad) to decrease.
A quick tip: if you have a weak board (for example, RivaTNT2 Vanta 8MB) and your favorite toy (of course, a tuxracer) “slows down”, reduce the resolution to 640x480.
Since virtually no one works with a “clean” X Window System with its classic window managers, I don’t see the point of considering additional key combinations. Let's go straight to KDE.
KDE Keyboard Shortcuts
Microsoft offers to start working in Windows by pressing the Start key. KDE uses a button labeled K (or rather, with the logo of KDE itself) for this. If you have a large monitor (19 inches or more) and you are too lazy to drag the mouse (which you forgot to clean) from the upper right to the lower left corner, press Alt + F1, and the KDE menu will appear at the current position of the mouse pointer.
If you need to run one command, it is unlikely that you need to run the terminal (provided that the called program is graphical), press Alt + F2 to open the program launch window - enter a command or select it from the list and click Run.
Fig. 1. The program launch window
You can switch between running programs using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab - as in Windows. If there is chaos on the desktop, then it's time to switch to another desktop. You can switch between desktops using the key combination Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Fn, where n is the number of the desktop you need. Remember that the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab only works within the current desktop. If you have dozens of two programs running on the first desktop and not a single one on the second one, when you press Alt + Tab on the second table you will see the message “No tasks”.
You can view the entire list of tasks by pressing Alt + F5. If you didn’t like a certain process, you can kill it by calling the task manager (Ctrl + Escape key combination).
Doesn't the keyboard layout switch in the usual way? Doesn't help, neither Ctrl, nor Ctrl + Shift? Then press the key combination Ctrl + Alt + K. This combination will always work in KDE.
Keyboard shortcuts for working with the clipboard are the most common - Ctrl + C (copy), Ctrl + X (cut) and Ctrl + V (paste). In addition to these three combinations, KDE provides the user with two more:
Ctrl + Alt + V - show the clipboard menu
Ctrl + Alt + R - “manual” work with the clipboard
But what about working with windows? The combination of Alt + F4, as in Windows, closes the window, and Alt + F3 - displays a menu of actions with the window.
The Ctrl + Alt + Esc combination that calls the xkill program is very useful. After calling it, the mouse pointer turns into a skull with bones. Clicking a “skull” on some window, it will be destroyed, even if the program “hung”. To exit xkill without destroying the window, press Esc.
In Windows, you could take a picture of the screen by pressing the Print Screen key. On Linux, this can also be done, but to photograph the entire desktop, press Ctrl + Print Screen, and the active window - Alt + Print Screen. After that, the resulting image will be placed on the clipboard and it can be pasted into any KDE-application that supports graphics. However, I recommend taking screenshots with special programs, for example, ksnapshot. The images obtained using this program will be much better than the images obtained by the method proposed above, and they will also take up little disk space (because the ksnapshot program uses the PNG format).
Some more useful shortcuts:
Alt + PtScr + S - immediately flush the buffer to disk
Alt + PtScr + U - immediately disconnect disks
Alt + PtScr + B - immediate reboot (acts as a reset).
If there is a hard hang or braking (for example, due to hardware glitches), but the kernel has not fallen into a panic yet, successively pressing these combinations with a slight delay of a couple of seconds will be much safer than resetting
When working with the console Ctrl + W and Ctrl + U - removal of one word and a whole line, respectively.
In the terminal, while the program is running, press Ctrl-S. This pauses program output.
Ctrl-Q - resume the output of the program :)
Alt + PtScr + K - beat the program, which now occupies the console. It helps a lot if X-sy flies due to crooked firewood.
Ctrl-L to clear the terminal window.
Ctrl-A to the beginning of the line
Ctrl-E to the end of the line
Ctrl-R search command history back (often used)
Esc. insert the last argument of the last command
Ctrl-V insert the next character literally (escape)
Ctrl-K delete to the end of the line
Ctrl-U delete to the beginning of the line
Ctrl-W delete the previous word
Esc {execute file completion and put the result in curly brackets for the shell
(try type “ls -l. {” in the home directory)
...
And many, many other things. And if not enough, you can add to .inputrc.
Full list (Alt + SysRq + character) (if anyone translates I will be very grateful!)
'R' - Turns off keyboard raw mode and sets it to XLATE.
'k' - Secure Access Key (SAK) Kills all programs on the current virtual
console. NOTE: See important comments below in SAK section.
'b' - Will immediately reboot the system without syncing or unmounting
your disks.
'c' - Will perform a kexec reboot in order to take a crashdump.
'd' - Shows all locks that are held.
'o' - Will shut your system off (if configured and supported).
's' - Will attempt to sync all mounted filesystems.
'u' - Will attempt to remount all mounted filesystems read-only.
'p' - Will dump the current registers and flags to your console.
't' - Will dump a list of current tasks and their information to your
console.
'm' - Will dump current memory info to your console.
'n' - Used to make RT tasks nice-able
'v' - Dumps Voyager SMP processor info to your console.
'w' - Dumps tasks that are in uninterruptable (blocked) state.
'x' - Used by xmon interface on ppc / powerpc platforms.
'0' - '9' - Sets the console log level, controlling which kernel messages
will be printed to your console. ('0', for example would make
it so that only emergency messages like PANICs or OOPSes would
make it to your console.)
'F' - Will call oom_kill to kill a memory hog process.
'e' - Send a SIGTERM to all processes, except for init.
'g' - Used by kgdb on ppc platforms.
'i' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, except for init.
'h' - Will display help (actually any other key than those listed
above will display help. but 'h' is easy to remember :-)
How to change keyboard shortcuts in KDE? Open the Control Center and go to the Appearance, Hot Keys (or Key Bindings section in the second version of KDE).
Fig. 2. Key bindings
Now summarize and create a table with key combinations. Print it and use it until you learn the combinations you need in your daily work.
Keyboard shortcut Category Action
Ctrl + Alt + Del System Restart Ctrl + Alt + Backspace System-wide Server X Reboot Alt + Fn Console Switch to console number n Alt + F7 Console Switch to graphical mode Tab Console, Terminal Autocomplete command line Shift + PgUp / Dn Console Scrolling (scrolling) the output of the program Ctrl + Alt + Fn X Window Switch to console number n Ctrl + “+” (numeric keypad) X Window Increase resolution Ctrl + “-“ (numeric keys) X Window Decrease resolution Alt + F1 KDE Opens the KDE menu KDE Opening the program launch window Alt + F3 KDE Opens the window action menu Alt + F4 KDE Closing the active window Alt + F5 KDE Window List Display Ctrl + Esc KDE Displays the Task Manager window Alt + Tab KDE Switch between windows within the desktop Ctrl + Tab KDE Switch to the next desktop Ctrl + Fn KDE Switch to the desktop with number n Ctrl + Alt + K KDE Switch keyboard layout Ctrl + Alt + Esc KDE Abnormal shutdown of a window (program) Alt + Print Screen KDE Snapshot of the active window Ctrl + Print Screen KDE Snapshot of the entire desktop ALT-Tab Gnome Task List Selection Crtl-Alt- (F1-F12) Gnome Command prompt Crtl-Alt-Backspace Gnome Restart XWindows Crtl-C Gnome Copy the selected text or region onto the clipboard Alt- (leftclick mouse) Gnome To hold on to the window / GUI and move it around Ctrl-F Gnome Switch to desktop Alt-F2 Gnome Show the panel run application dialog Alt-F1 Gnome Show the panel menu Print Gnome Take a screenshot Alt-Print Gnome Take a screenshot of a window Ctrl-Alt-Arrow keys Gnome Switches to the workspace to the specified direction of the current workspace Ctrl-Alt-D Gnome Minimizes all windows, and gives focus to the desktop Ctrl-Alt-Tab Gnome Switches the focus between the panels and the desktop Alt-F4 Gnome Closes the currently focused window Alt-F5 Gnome Unmaximize the current window, if it is maximized Alt-F7 Gnome Move the currently focused window Alt-F8 Gnome Resize the currently focused window Alt-F9 Gnome Minimize the current window Alt-F10 Gnome Maximize the current window Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Arrow keys Gnome Moves the current window to another workspace in the specified direction Ctrl-N Gnome Create a new document or window Ctrl-X Gnome Cut the selected text or region and place it on the clipboard Ctrl-V Gnome Paste the contents of the clipboard Ctrl-Z Gnome Undo the last action Ctrl-S Gnome Save the current document to disk Tab Gnome Move between controls in the interface or items in a list spacebar Gnome Activate or choose the selected item F10 Gnome Activate the left-most menu of the application window Shift-F10 Gnome Activate the context menu for the selected item Esc Gnome Close a menu without selecting a menu item, or cancel a drag operation Alt + ctrl + del Gnome brings up a menu with a choice of actions (reboot, shutdown, hibernate, etc.) ctrl + w Gnome closes the window ctrl + q Gnome for the most part closes the application ctrl + shift + q Gnome closes the terminal