release capture key combination conflict [enhancement]

[jimmont]

Describe the issue When using UTM the key combination to release mouse capture (control + alt/option) interfere with application use (and the primary reason to use a vm).

As a user I want a (configurable) key combination that is highly unused, to release capture so it does not interfere with applications.

Configuration

• UTM Version: Version 2.4.1 (40)
• OS Version: Darwin 20.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0: Wed Nov 10 22:23:05 PST 2021; root:xnu-7195.141.14~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 arm64
• Intel or Apple Silicon? M1 arm64

[ktprograms]

@jimmont Are you aware that you can change the capture/release key combination to Command+Option? You just need to open the UTM preferences and click the checkbox Use Command+Opt for input capture/release. BTW this setting can be changed on the fly even while the VM is running.

[osy]

I thought about this before but decided it would be something that people will rarely use. Is there a specific reason both the primary and alternative button combos don't work for you?

[gplusplus314]

Sorry to bump a very old issue, but this is exactly what I was about to post if I didn't already find it.

To answer your question, yes, there is a reason why the primary and secondary alternative buttons won't work for me. I use ergonomic, minimal-movement keyboards and I'm very dependent on physical key locations. I use a keyboard-centric workflow with minimal mouse usage, so I need lots of keyboard customization.

Combinations of modifiers is basically "prime real estate" in a keyboard-centric workflow. In fact, one specific keybind I use is cmd + opt + space to open Spotlight. This is because my main launcher is Alfred, which I've replaced Spotlight with and use the traditional cmd + space keybind. The reason why I have these two binds is because I have the command and option keys physically next to each other, so I can press both with one thumb. So basically, it's all about ergonomics.

I also remap modifiers for my terminal. Essentially, the command key is the defacto "mod key" for in-focus applications on macOS. But terminal applications generally use control as their mod key, so I swap control and command just for terminal emulators. The reason for this is nothing other than ergonomics; my thumbs can do exactly the same movements every time, consistently.

So with the two toggleable options in UTM for keyboard capture toggle, you can see how they can get in the way for someone who has a heavily keyboard-dependent workflow, or perhaps a workflow that uses different keybindings than defaults.

It would be nice to be able to change the keyboard capture hotkey to an arbitrary combination. For me, I'd probably pick something like hyper + backslash. Hyper is basically all 4 modifiers a the same time, so this would be shift + control + command + option + backslash. This is very out-of-the-way and won't interfere with any sensible, fast, ergonomic, high-frequency keybinds for my particular workflow. But everyone is different!

Anyways, I hope my examples/explanation might shed some light on the use cases people may have. If you have the time to maybe put together some code pointers and a general approach for accomplishing this, I can try to take a stab at it. I'm not a macOS developer, but I can try to spend some time on this if you can point me in the right direction.

[esotericist]

i just ran into this myself; my goal is to have the vm be as close to 'the whole computer' as i can, and both of the bindings are too easy to accidentally trigger. is there any any way it could be made rebindable?

[leveled]

+1, modifying the capture shortcut would be a great enhancement!

[amunrarara]

+1 as well, I'd like to set my own capture shortcut, this one's a bit of a breaker for me as my window tiling management hotkeys have been bound to these keys for years. I'd put my capture key way over to Meta+Escape, personally.