Adding custom shortcuts in Gnome

You may want to bind an arbitrary keyboard shortcut to an action (eg. launching an application), but the default Gnome tool allows only a set of predefined actions. Here is the procedure to add custom actions to bind to a key combination.

First you have to launch the tool gconf-editor; if you don't have it, install it:

# apt-get install gconf-editor

Then you have to find the key "apps->metacity->keybinding_commands->command_1" through the gconf tree.

There you can specify (in the "value" field) the command to be launched (eg. xterm).

You have associated "command_1" to the command "xterm".

Now go on and define the key combination; go to "apps->metacity->global_keybindings->run_command_1" and put in the "value" field the key combination you like (eg. <Alt>F1).

Now you should be able to launch the command xterm with Alt+F1.