How can I prevent Unity from grabbing keybindings (allowing an application to handle them first)?

Question

Note: the answer I've accepted works correctly in Precise Pangolin (12.04). It does not work correctly in Oneiric Ocelot.

Original text:

I have an application in which I want to use alt-F1 to access some specific functionality. Unfortunately, Unity in Oneiric Ocelot (11.10) grabs this key combination and shows the launcher. I would like to disable or bypass that behavior, but I have no idea how to accomplish it.

I have read How do I deactivate F1 and F10 keybindings? and looked around in all the places pointed-out there and elsewhere, in both the CompizConfig Settings Manager and the gconf-editor. Unfortunately, the alt-F1 combination is nowhere to be found or disabled. In fact I have successfully prevented Gnome/Compiz from intercepting the keybinding in previous distributions (Lucid Lynx and older).

Can anyone tell me where I can prevent Unity from interpreting my keybindings before my application has a chance to respond to them?

Answer 1

in ccsm (CompizConfig Settings Manager) > Ubuntu Unity Plugin it's sitting right there on the Behavior tab

Answer 2

This is an ugly hack

edit, as superuser, the following file

/usr/share/compiz/unityshell.xml

and change

    <option name="execute_command" type="key">
           <short>Key to execute a command</short>
           <long>Key to open a folder or execute a command</long>
           <default>&lt;Alt&gt;F2</default>
    </option>

to something like:

    <option name="execute_command" type="key">
           <short>Key to execute a command</short>
           <long>Key to open a folder or execute a command</long>
           <default>&lt;Super&gt;F2</default>
    </option>

Logout and login.