Disable switch-applications(Alt+Tab) using shell script or python in ubuntu 16.04

Question

How can I disable Alt-Tab application switching in Cinnamon when a certain program is open? In System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts Tried to disable, click on it to set a new shortcut, then pressing Backspace to set disable that shortcut.

Using gsettings commands The keybindings to switch to another workspace are set in:

org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications []
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications-background []

I have tried these many methods to disable alt+tab key but still not disabled. Maybe I need to set it globally but in ubuntu where alt+tab key values stored, I don't known. Please help me on this.

Answer 1

Try to change it with dconf (from dconf-cli package):

dconf load / << EOF 
[org/compiz]
current-profile='unity'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/unityshell]
alt-tab-prev='Disabled'
launcher-switcher-prev='Disabled'
alt-tab-forward='Disabled'
launcher-switcher-forward='Disabled'
alt-tab-forward-all='Disabled'
alt-tab-prev-all='Disabled'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/switcher]
prev-all-key='Disabled'
prev-key='Disabled'
next-all-key='Disabled'
next-key='Disabled'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/staticswitcher]
prev-all-key='Disabled'
next-all-key='Disabled'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity-lowgfx/plugins/unityshell]
alt-tab-prev='Disabled'
launcher-switcher-prev='Disabled'
alt-tab-forward='Disabled'
launcher-switcher-forward='Disabled'
alt-tab-forward-all='Disabled'
alt-tab-prev-all='Disabled'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity-lowgfx/plugins/switcher]
prev-all-key='Disabled'
prev-key='Disabled'
next-all-key='Disabled'
next-key='Disabled'

[org/compiz/profiles/unity-lowgfx/plugins/staticswitcher]
prev-all-key='Disabled'
next-all-key='Disabled'
EOF

Notes:

1. this will disable all occurrences of Tab key.
2. on my VirtualBox 16.04 LTS has two Compiz profiles - unity and unity-lowgfx. If you are sure that you have only unity you can skip unity-lowgfx.

You can revert to default settings with

dconf reset /org/compiz/profiles/unity-lowgfx -f
dconf reset /org/compiz/profiles/unity -f

then logout and login again.