How To Disable F1 and F10 Keybindings in Gnome-Terminal

In this guide, we will delve into the process of disabling F1 and F10 keybindings in the Gnome-Terminal. These keybindings are typically set to open the help menu and the file menu respectively. However, they can sometimes interfere with other applications that use the same keybindings for different functions.

Disabling F1 Shortcut

The F1 key is typically bound to the help menu in Gnome-Terminal. To disable this keybinding, follow the steps below:

1. Open Gnome-Terminal. You can do this by searching for ‘Terminal’ in your applications menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.
2. In the menu bar at the top of the terminal window, click on “Edit”.
3. From the drop-down menu, select “Keyboard Shortcuts”.
4. A new window will open with a list of all the keyboard shortcuts. Scroll down to the “Help/Contents” shortcut.
5. Click on the keybinding next to “Help/Contents” (which should be set to “F1”).
6. Press the “Backspace” key. This will remove the F1 shortcut, effectively disabling it.

Disabling F10 Shortcut

The F10 key is usually bound to the file menu in Gnome-Terminal. Disabling this keybinding is a bit more complex than disabling the F1 keybinding. Here’s how to do it:

1. First, you need to install the compizconfig-settings-manager package. This package provides a configuration tool for Compiz. You can install it using the following command:

   sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

   The sudo command allows you to run the command as a superuser, and apt-get install is used to install packages.
2. Once the package is installed, open the “CompizConfig Settings Manager”. You can do this by pressing the Super key (usually the Windows key on your keyboard), typing “Compiz”, and hitting Enter.
3. In the CompizConfig Settings Manager, type “unity” in the Filter entry and select the “Ubuntu Unity Plugin”.
4. Here, you will see a button next to “Key to open the first panel menu”. Click this button and uncheck the “Enabled” checkbox. This will disable the global F10 shortcut.
5. To disable the F10 key in gnome-terminal specifically, go back to the terminal. Click on “Edit” in the menu bar and select “Keyboard Shortcuts”. Uncheck the “Enable the menu shortcut key (F10 by default)” option.

Disabling F1 and F10 in GTK-3.0

Another way to disable these keybindings is to create a custom GTK-3.0 configuration. Here’s how:

1. Open a terminal and enter the following command:

   mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0
   cat<<EOF > ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
   @binding-set NoKeyboardNavigation {
    unbind "<shift>F10";
    unbind "<control>F1";
   }
   * {
    gtk-key-bindings: NoKeyboardNavigation;
   }
   EOF

   The mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0 part of the command creates a new directory for the GTK-3.0 configuration if it doesn’t already exist. The cat<<EOF > ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css part of the command creates a new file named gtk.css in the newly created directory and opens it for writing. The lines between EOF are written to the gtk.css file.
2. Close all terminal sessions for the changes to take effect.

Using dconf-editor

The dconf-editor tool provides a simple way to change keybindings. Here’s how to use it to disable the F1 and F10 keybindings:

1. Install dconf-editor if it’s not already installed. You can do this using the following command:

   sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

2. Open dconf-editor and navigate to /apps/gnome-terminal/keybindings/help.
3. Change the value to “disabled” to remove the F1 keybinding.

Please note that the effectiveness of these solutions may vary depending on the version of Ubuntu and the desktop environment you are using. Always ensure to back up your system before making any changes to avoid any potential issues.