Technical Bug Report: KDE Plasma Super Key Conflict
To: Pop!_OS/KDE Plasma Support Team
From: User wils (Running Pop!_OS with KDE Plasma)
Date: October 27, 2025
Problem Area: Global Shortcuts / Window Manager (KWin)
1. Problem Description
The global shortcut for activating the Application Launcher (Start Menu/Application Menu) cannot be assigned to the Meta key alone (Windows Key).
The system prevents setting Meta as a single, solitary shortcut for the menu, which is the expected default behavior in many desktop environments. This prevents the user from achieving the desired functional behavior.
2. Observed Symptoms and Error Analysis
GUI Limitation: Within System Settings $\rightarrow$ Shortcuts $\rightarrow$ Plasma, it is impossible to register Meta (Windows Key) as a solitary shortcut for the activate widget 4 action (āApplication Launcherā). The GUI either ignores or rejects the input.
Failed Command Attempts: Direct gsettings and manual file editing attempts to set the key were overwritten or ignored, confirming a deep conflict.
Keycode Verification: Diagnostic testing (xmodmap -pke) confirms that the keycode 133 is correctly mapped to the symbol Super_L (Meta). The issue is not with the hardware or the low-level mapping.
3. Technical Conclusion and Required Change
The bug indicates a conflict where the KDE Plasma environment either:
Has a hardcoded block that reserves the Meta key for a different system function (such as a generic āoverviewā or a KWin modifier), preventing it from being released as a single-key shortcut for the Launcher.
Contains a priority conflict within the kglobalshortcutsrc configuration logic that ignores or fails to apply the manual Meta assignment.
Required Solution (Code Change):
KDE Plasma needs to be modified (in its default configuration or internal code) to allow the Meta key alone to be correctly assigned to the āActivate Application Launcherā action. This would resolve the conflict and restore the expected behavior for users on the Plasma environment.
I found a solution by going into Plasma desktop manager by right clicking on startmenu item, chosing āConfigure Application Launcher Alt+D, Sā then going to keyboard shortcuts and created a shortcut using Meta+space ā Apply after this i can now start the application launcher menu with Meta key/Windows key or Meta+space and access all prorams with cursor by using arrow keys and not being forced to use mouse pointer to access all programs and menus.
Something is slightly odd here - Pop! OS doesnāt come with Plasma, itās a GNOME type environment - so any bugs you have could well arise from that.
I remember a year or two back I had some issues about assigning Meta to the Application Launcher - but not for a long long time now.
I can actually set it via context click on the menu itself, and press āMetaā to set itā¦ and it works. Always.
Iām assuming that you have used AI to compose your post, as it looks very technically impressive, but (as is common with AI trolling many years of internet posts) also very confused.
The configuration which caused this error no longer exists (it was an overwrite problem with kglobalshortcutsrc).
You describe the PROBLEM as āThe global shortcut for activating the Application Launcher cannot be assigned to the Meta Key aloneā.
Haha yes, thatās plausible - then probably it can be fixed with
kwriteconfig5 --file kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.kglobalaccel,/component/kwin,org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component,invokeShortcut,Overview"
Something I havenāt done for ten years now, and will not bother trying to do again, is installing a new desktop environment to a current installation.
Iād suggest, as a general idea for future ābugā questions, that you include information:
Thanks a lot for looking into my post, very nice if you, after all the problems with Pop!os i went away from it and are using Linux Mint 22.2 Cinnamon now and experience few problems like i had in pop!os
Itās very much to learn in Linux and the possibility to get some help is very nice, i really appreciate your time for answering my post , thank you very much.
Linux Mint is a very fine distribution, a friend of mine moved from Arch to Mint a couple of years ago, and finds it perfect for his needs - if you decide to try KDE Plasma again, choose one of the better platforms - Kubuntu (Stable) is fine, as are a few other choices.
For now, enjoy Mint for a year and gain some experience. Make sure you master the art of backups and snapshots (not the same thing).
Kbuntu is one distro i yet have to try, tried a lot , but i am stuck on a old Voyo i7 x64, 16GB RAM , 1TB disk and Intel HD620 (radeon besides) , i use dxvk in lutris to run āThe Lord of the Rings online of 2007ā and have a good time gaming on medium to low graphic settings.
I did my best to make the bug report as complete as possible and as tidy as possible, but decided to give Gemini a try , , it is as it is and thankfulky i got a serious answer and that is very very very nice .
Thank you very very much for taking the time to answer me, itās highly appreciated.
