On 12/20/2016 09:10 PM, Jean-Philippe Ouellet wrote:
On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 4:14 PM, Chris Laprise <[email protected]> wrote:
On 12/20/2016 02:31 PM, Jean-Philippe Ouellet wrote:
As requested in [1] and implemented in [2], I am proposing to add
keyboard shortcuts to qubes-manager.
Specifically, at this time I am proposing to add the following:
...
I don't think that most of these functions are used frequently,
I use them frequently enough to want to add shortcuts for them. I
imagine the same is likely true for at least some others.
and the shortcuts proposed are more appropriate for editing a document or
database.
Okay? So? I do not understand what this implies.
Some are reminiscent of browsing or word processing: Ctrl+N, New
document. Del/Backspace, remove info. Ctrl+C, copy.
Also, 'space' for start/stop is something I would actually patch to remove
from my system; there are VMs I do not want starting accidentally because I
pressed the spacebar, and spurious prompts to shutdown VMs would be a
nuisance. This is a media player type of mapping that's inappropriate for
VMs.
The ones I think would be really time-saving (and safe) are:
4. Shutdown VM: SHIFT+Esc
6. Settings: Ctrl+E
8. Run in VM: Ctrl+R
9. Show/hide inactive VMs: Ctrl+H
I think you have identified two separate problems:
1) The possibility that accidentally starting sensitive VMs may be
harmful to users
This is a real deficiency. I think avoiding a startup shortcut
altogether is reasonable because of this. Or, barring that, at least
separate the startup and shutdown into two shortcuts which are not
keys next to each other. At least in my use it is far more often that
a VM is started via a .desktop file or on demand as a NetVM of
something else being started than started manually via qubes-manager.
2) Space is too easy to hit accidentally, and thus is not suitable as
a shortcut to manipulate VMs.
Also a fair criticism. I originally had it as Ctrl+Space. If we go the
only-shutdown route I question whether space makes much sense at all
anymore.
Personally, I think Shift+Esc is a little awkward and inconsistent
with the rest of the shortcuts. Any other suggestions?
As Esc is often used to stop something in a wide array of program types
(and is intentionally inconsistent with other shortcuts), it seems
appropriate to stop VMs. Its small and far away from frequently-used
keys, so with qualifier seems appropriate.
What would be TRULY useful is a global shortcut to shutdown the VM of the
active window. That would save a great deal of mousing effort. I think it
can be done easily in KDE shortcuts, but it would be nice to have for all
DEs.
I find myself closing all VM windows before shutting down the VM out of habit.
With file managers, terminals, document editors, I finish and find
myself wishing I didn't have to go back to QM to shutdown the VM. Excess
running VMs has been an issue with Qubes in general.
If we agree this is a good idea, and identify a suitable shortcut,
then I believe the right place to do this is in the gui daemon,
similarly to how Ctrl+Shift+{C,V} are done currently, and this would
be DE-agnostic.
Then it comes down to identifying a shortcut which would be suitable
and acceptably non-conflicting.
The simplest things are often the most controversial... :/
I proposed earlier [1] that I think it would be a good idea to
dedicate an entire modifier key to qubes itself. This would allow us
to have a guaranteed-collision-free shortcut namespace, as well as be
able to make keystrokes starting with this modifier invisible to
AppVMs. I think it is reasonable to expect users to be able to select
a suitable such key on their respective keyboard layouts. Choosing a
default such key is again controversial. [1]
[1]: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/881#issuecomment-262648022
[2]: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/881
I like the general idea of a global Qubes shortcut, something like
VMware or Vbox use. Even just something that brings QM (or its
successor) to the current screen/focus is good.
Additionally, some global shortcut to Pause/Unpause VMs may be quite useful
to certain users who examine the behavior of software.
Can you elaborate on who would use this? and why?
Definitely thinking about technical users here: Analysis of traffic,
malware, etc. Maybe an option that could be enabled.
As for adding features to Qubes Manager, that may be moot. There is supposed
to be a feature freeze on QM.
Uhh, first I've heard of this... I've made ~10 changes to it in the last month.
Yes, I noticed some already. I don't understand why they are letting
changes through now. QM is supposed to be moribund. I've seen comments
from staff saying changes should wait for the new stuff.
I am aware of the impending rewrite, but do not see why this should
prevent quality-of-life improvements to the existing one in the mean
time.
In any case, I've quite likely spent more time discussing this now
than all users collectively are likely to save pressing keyboard
shortcuts instead of using the mouse. Ah priorities...
https://xkcd.com/1205/ :)
If nothing else, smoother workflow and less halting of thought process
would be worth it. One thing that impressed me about OS X is how every
tool has strategically placed keyboard shortcuts.
Chris
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