Shortcuts on Linux are all messed up (feeling frustrated)

[leoheck]

FIRST of all, The Most Important Feature of Kicad is the Shortcuts/Hotkeys

But it is being a bit frustrating using Kicad 7 recently. All the good stuff is messed up.
Some important shortcuts are broken.

Special care should be given to the Symbol and Footprint editor.
For instance, I cannot use Ctrl+s to save on the Footprint editor anymore.
When I hold Ctrl, the mouse pointer changes to something like “arrow up”. And this may be preventing Ctrl+s to work.

Application: KiCad Footprint Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 7.0.2-6a45011f42~172~ubuntu23.04.1, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.2
	FreeType 2.12.1
	HarfBuzz 6.0.0
	FontConfig 2.14.1
	libcurl/7.88.1 OpenSSL/3.0.8 zlib/1.2.13 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.5.4 libidn2/2.3.3 libpsl/0.21.2 (+libidn2/2.3.3) libssh/0.10.4/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.52.0 librtmp/2.3

Platform: Ubuntu 23.04, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, ubuntu-xorg, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Apr 17 2023 07:57:57
	wxWidgets: 3.2.2 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.74.0
	OCC: 7.6.3
	Curl: 7.88.1
	ngspice: 38
	Compiler: GCC 12.2.0 with C++ ABI 1017

Build settings:
	KICAD_SPICE=ON

[hmk]

For me, on 7.0.4 on fedora 37 (Linux), in the footprint editor, the mouse pointer changes, but Ctrl+S still works for saving the footprint, as does Ctrl+Shift+S for “save as”.
In the symbol editor Ctrl+S doesn’t do anything when I have opened a KiCad library symbol, perhaps because the KiCad default libraries are read-only, but Ctrl+Shift+S does work. If I press Ctrl+S on a symbol from a user library, it does save the changes made.

Application: KiCad Symbol Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 7.0.4-1.fc37, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.1
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 5.2.0
FontConfig 2.14.1
libcurl/7.85.0 OpenSSL/3.0.8 zlib/1.2.12 brotli/1.0.9 libidn2/2.3.4 libpsl/0.21.1 (+libidn2/2.3.3) libssh/0.10.4/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.51.0

Platform: Fedora release 37 (Thirty Seven), 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, KDE, wayland

Build Info:
Date: May 22 2023 00:00:00
wxWidgets: 3.2.1 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.78.0
OCC: 7.6.3
Curl: 7.85.0
ngspice: 40
Compiler: GCC 12.3.1 with C++ ABI 1017

Build settings:
KICAD_SPICE=ON

[dhaillant]

Ctrl+s works for me here

Application: KiCad Footprint Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 7.0.2-6a45011f42~172~ubuntu20.04.1, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.1
	FreeType 2.10.1
	HarfBuzz 6.0.0
	FontConfig 2.13.1
	libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3

Platform: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, xubuntu, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Apr 17 2023 07:58:01
	wxWidgets: 3.2.1 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.71.0
	OCC: 7.5.2
	Curl: 7.88.1
	ngspice: 38
	Compiler: GCC 9.4.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
	KICAD_SPICE=ON

[greg_m]

Is it not due to your language / keyboard / locale settings?

[hmk]

For me it works in both english and swedish language, with swedish keyboard / locale.
The OP might have another language / keyboard / locale of course.
But I suspect that he might potentially also think it doesn’t work because Ctrl+S doesn’t do anything in the symbol editor if the library is read-only.

[leoheck]

There are moments when shortcuts do not work. I could not identify those moments yet to describe them here, but sometimes shortcuts do not work as intended.

No, it is not the language/keyboard/locale.

By the way, this is what I use:

➜ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

My keyboard is an English one. I have a second switch when I have to use a different keyboard.

[leoheck]

@hmk

the symbol editor if the library is read-only.

No no no, I am editing my own libraries where they can be edited.

[mf_ibfeew]

There are moments when shortcuts do not work.

In the footprint/symbol editor it partly depends which part of the GUI controls the input focus:

• last clicked on main canvas → the main window controls focus (most hotkeys work)
• last clicked on library tree pn the left: → library tree controls focus (you can navigate with cursor keys in this pane) → hotkeys not working

A similar behaviour was introduced with the new properties panel+search panel in the board editor.

There were already discussion on that topic on gitlab and some hotkey-related issues are still open. Also there were different expectations from different users - some expected the hotkeys to work even the tool-panes control the focus, some prefer that the hotkeys only work in main canvas.

[leoheck]

Ah, here we are! Thanks for clarification @mf_ibfeew

Well, it is a bit confusing when something that should be global inside a window changes in some areas of the window.

It is annoying actually.