How do I disable Ctrl-Alt-D in gnome-shell?

Question

I am using gnome 3 and gnome-shell (not gnome classic) on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with emacs. I would like to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+D with emacs, however whenever I hit that keystroke, gnome intercepts it and hides all windows.

I have tried to disable it under Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Navigation > Hide all normal windows. It appears disabled there, but if I hit Ctrl+Alt+D all windows will still minimize.

My next step was to try and use dconf-editor to disable it under org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings, but I couldn't find any option for "hide all windows" (or anything similar) there.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

I figured out that the following worked in my case. First, instead of trying to disable the shortcut, give it a new key combination. I did this in System Settings -> Keyboard Layout -> Layouts -> Options..., but it's a known bug that these settings are not respected in Gnome Shell.

Additionally, use dconf-editor to give it the same key combination:

1. Open dconf-editor (Alt-F2, enter dconf-editor)
2. Expand until the element: org → gnome → desktop → wm → keybindings.
3. Change the value for the correct key (in your case, this should be show-desktop).

In my case, I wanted C-M-s be respected in Emacs, and not roll up the current window. So instead of trying to disable the shortcut by using brackets in dconf-editor, I gave toggle-shaded a new key combination: ['<Control><Super>s']. And suddenly, C-M-s was available in Emacs. Hope this helps for you, too.