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GNOME 46 Wayland (Ubuntu 24.04): GlobalShortcuts portal missing breaks hotkey dictation without notice #781
Description
Hex version
3.1.1, stable channel, installed via install-linux.sh
Platform
Linux Wayland
System details
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, GNOME Shell 46.0 (Mutter Wayland session), xdg-desktop-portal 1.18.4, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome 46.2.
What happened?
On Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME 46, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome doesn't implement org.freedesktop.portal.GlobalShortcuts. When hex.service starts, it logs:
INFO hex::linux::portal: the desktop has no such portal error=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs: No such interface “org.freedesktop.portal.GlobalShortcuts” interface="org.freedesktop.portal.GlobalShortcuts"
INFO hex::linux::linux_input: no GlobalShortcuts portal; dictation follows the hex commands
Hex dictation is ready on Webcam C170, USB Audio. Hold Ctrl+Space to dictate; Ctrl-C stops.
Because the portal is missing:
- No shortcut approval dialog appears.
- Pressing the shortcut (Ctrl+Space) does nothing.
- Hex settings and status show the shortcut as configured and ready, so there's no indication why it isn't triggering.
Steps to reproduce
- Run Hex on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (GNOME 46, Wayland session).
- Press the dictation hotkey (Ctrl+Space).
- Dictation doesn't start, and
journalctl --user -u hexshows the missing portal message.
Additional context
Binding a custom shortcut in GNOME directly works around it:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/ name 'Hex Dictation'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/ command '/home/g/.local/bin/hex dictation toggle'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybinding:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/ binding '<Control>space'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys custom-keybindings "['/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys/custom-keybindings/custom0/']"Possible improvements:
- Warn in Settings or logs that GNOME 46 lacks GlobalShortcuts portal support and needs a custom desktop shortcut.
- Provide a CLI helper (or setup step) to configure the GNOME custom keybinding automatically.
- Check for
wl-clipboardininstall-linux.shon Wayland.
Activity
[-]GNOME 46 Wayland (Ubuntu 24.04): GlobalShortcuts portal missing breaks hotkey dictation without user guidance / automatic fallback[/-]thdxr commentedon Nov 1, 2026
gnome 46 has no globalshortcuts portal, so no key can be registered there. hex already falls back to the hex commands: general hides the shortcut rows and shows a desktop shortcuts card with
hex dictation toggleetc. to bind in gnome settings › keyboard › custom shortcuts, and the status hint says to use the desktop's shortcuts. the clipboard part is real: wayland paste runswl-copy, and when it's missing you only find out after the first dictation as "last dictation failed: … install wl-clipboard".hex can't tell whether a gnome keybinding for the hex commands exists, so "ready" can't be confirmed either way.
gnome custom shortcuts only fire on press, so hold-to-dictate (start on press, stop on release) can't work there, only
hex dictation toggle.nothing checks for
wl-copyat startup or in onboarding on wayland, so a missing wl-clipboard shows up only as a failed dictation.would be useful to know if general showed the desktop shortcuts card with the hex commands, and if binding
hex dictation togglein gnome settings got dictation working.if you can, after installing wl-clipboard does the paste land, or does it say copied to the clipboard?
— from 𝕺𝖕𝖊𝖓𝕮𝖔𝖉𝖊
Docs: GNOME custom shortcuts (#781)
GNOME without a shortcuts portal: one click adds Hex's custom keyboar…
thdxr commentedon Nov 1, 2026
gnome 46 has no shortcuts portal so hex can't register keys there, you have to bind the hex commands yourself, which is basically what you did with gsettings
#785 (next dev build) does that for you. on gnome, settings › desktop shortcuts has an add gnome keyboard shortcuts button. it adds hex dictation, paste last and annotate to gnome's custom shortcuts with your keys. dictation toggles there because gnome only fires custom shortcuts on press, so hold doesn't work. they get removed while hex is disabled and come back when you enable it. if you change a key in gnome settings it stays, and your other custom shortcuts aren't touched
thanks for the gsettings commands, that's pretty much how it works now
— from 𝕺𝖕𝖊𝖓𝕮𝖔𝖉𝖊