How to enable the "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace" Shortcut in RHEL7 ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • GNOME3
    *KDE

Issue

  • The Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut key combination is used for terminating the X server. It used to work in RHEL6, but it's not working in RHEL7.
  • Is there any way to enable this shortcut ?

Resolution

  • GNOME
  • To enable the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut to forcibly terminate the X server by default for all users, set the org.gnome.desktop.input-sources.xkb-options GSettings key.

  • Steps:

    • Create a local database for machine-wide settings by adding below mentioned lines in a file:
    # cat  /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-input-sources
    [org/gnome/desktop/input-sources]
    xkb-options=['terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp']
    
    • Override user specific settings and prevent users from changing the shortcut. To do that, create a file named "input-sources" under /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/ directory with following content:
    # cat /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/input-sources
    /org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/xkb-options
    
    • Update dconf database to apply the changes:
    # dconf update
    
  • KDE

  • Please follow below steps to configure ctrl-alt-backspace for KDE:-

    Go to System Settings ==> Input Devices ==> Keyboard ==> Advanced => Key sequence to kill the x server ==>  ctrl-alt-backspace.
    

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