alt + any key. It doesn't work. Alacritty + zellij + macOS

[Keeyuu]

I have set a meta key in Alacritty.
I use option as alt in nvim.It works very well

• { key: N, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bn" }

But when I enter zellij, it doesn't work. I use alt+n, alt+ any,no response, just output ˜ Like this

[cakir-enes]

Same goes for Warp, iTerm and kitty. It worked fine on wezterm tho

[naosense]

Thanks for your report. If you use iterm2, #1936 may work for you. I'm not familiar with Alacritty, you can check to see if Alacritty has such a setting

[alex35mil]

For Alacritty, alacritty/alacritty#62 (comment)

[alex35mil]

In Alacritty, the Home, End, and Insert keys also don't work. I didn't remap any of those keys anywhere.

NVM, I forgot to apply nix config.

[benvds]

I've also got this problem. setting the keybindings from the alacritty issues doesn't seem to work

[bguo068]

I had a similar issue with macOS

[merikan]

To make Option key act as Alt key on Macos was fixed in v0.12.0-RC1 with the Window option option_as_alt. Using Alt+[h,j,k,l] to switch between Panes now works as expected.

window:
  option_as_alt: Both

Update 2023-03-25 Alacritty released v0.12.0

[imsnif]

We recently added an FAQ for this issue specifically: https://zellij.dev/documentation/faq.html#i-am-a-macos-user-how-can-i-use-the-alt-key

@merikan - if you'd like to make a PR to the zellij website repository and add this information for Alacritty, it would be greatly appreciated!

[oriming]

@merikan @alex35mil According to your configuration, after it is completed, the Alt + hjkl keys are effective, but only Alt+n does not work. It's so strange. 😣

By the way, I'm using Alacritty 0.11.0. Please help me. 🥹

[merikan]

@3bluebird I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean. The option_as_alt was added to Alacritty v0.12-RC1, try to download the latest (-RC2) and see if it works.
Or did you do the keybindings in alacritty.yaml? I used to have that but the problem for me was that I am switching between ansi/us and iso/swe keyboards.
Try to start a new Alacrity session with print-events enabled alacritty --print-events | grep -i keyboardinput

Copied from Alacritty website

1. Run alacritty --print-events | grep -i keyboardinput.
2. Press problematic key bindings on such layouts, for example Alt + 8.
3. In the output you'll see something like KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 28, state: Pressed, virtual_keycode: Some(LBracket), modifiers: ALT }, is_synthetic: false } }.
4. Add a binding like - { key: LBracket, mods: Alt, chars: "[" }, the key is virtual_keycode from step 3 if it end up being None you can write key: 28, where 28 is scancode from 3.
5. Repeat 1-4 until you are done.

[oriming]

@merikan Although I followed the steps of Alacritty and printed out the log information, I didn't understand it. I tried several configurations but they didn't work. I am really stupid. 🥹

My computer is macos Ventura 13.1。

The operation is Alt+n ，The following is the printed information：

[70.917475875s] [INFO ] [alacritty] glutin event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(5410976992)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 58, state: Pressed, virtual_keycode: Some(LAlt), modifiers: ALT }, is_synthetic: false } }
[71.488687458s] [INFO ] [alacritty] glutin event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(5410976992)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 58, state: Released, virtual_keycode: Some(LAlt), modifiers: (empty) }, is_synthetic: false } }

---

The configuration of Alac is as follows.

window:
  option_as_alt: Both
  padding:
    x: 10
    y: 10
  class:
    instance: Alacritty
    general: Alacritty
  opacity: 0.98

scrolling:
  history: 10000
  multiplier: 3

font:
  normal:
    family: Mononoki Nerd Font Mono
    style: Italic
  bold:
    family: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
    style:  Bold
  italic:
    family: Mononoki Nerd Font Mono
    style:  Italic
  bold_italic:
    family: Mononoki Nerd Font Mono
    style: Bold Italic
  size: 12
  offset:
    x: 1
    y: 10
  glyph_offset:
    x: 0
    y: 5
draw_bold_text_with_bright_colors: true

import:
  - ~/.config/alacritty/.alacritty-colorscheme/themes/horizon-dark.yaml

selection:
  save_to_clipboard: false

key_bindings:
  - { key: Semicolon, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[59;5u" }
  - { key: Period, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[46;5u" }
  - { key: Comma, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[44;5u" }
  - { key: Slash, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[47;5u" }
  - { key: Space, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[32;5u" }
  - { key: Return, mods: Control, chars: "\x1b[13;5u" }
  - { key: Return, mods: Shift, chars: "\x1b[13;2u" }
  - { key: Return, mods: Control|Shift, chars: "\x1b[13;6u" }
  - { key: N, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bn" }
  - { key: H, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bh" }
  - { key: J, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bj" }
  - { key: K, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bk" }
  - { key: L, mods: Alt, chars: "\x1bl" }
  - { key: A, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bA" }
  - { key: B, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bB" }
  - { key: C, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bC" }
  - { key: D, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bD" }
  - { key: E, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bE" }
  - { key: F, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bF" }
  - { key: G, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bG" }
  - { key: H, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bH" }
  - { key: I, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bI" }
  - { key: J, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bJ" }
  - { key: K, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bK" }
  - { key: L, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bL" }
  - { key: M, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bM" }
  - { key: N, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bN" }
  - { key: O, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bO" }
  - { key: P, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bP" }
  - { key: Q, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bQ" }
  - { key: R, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bR" }
  - { key: S, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bS" }
  - { key: T, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bT" }
  - { key: U, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bU" }
  - { key: V, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bV" }
  - { key: W, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bW" }
  - { key: X, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bX" }
  - { key: Y, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bY" }
  - { key: Z, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bZ" }
  - { key: Key1,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b1" }
  - { key: Key2,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b2" }
  - { key: Key3,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b3" }
  - { key: Key4,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b4" }
  - { key: Key5,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b5" }
  - { key: Key6,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b6" }
  - { key: Key7,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b7" }
  - { key: Key8,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b8" }
  - { key: Key9,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b9" }
  - { key: Key0,  mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b0" }
  - { key: LBracket,  mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b[" }
  - { key: RBracket,  mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b]" }
  - { key: Minus,     mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b-" }
  - { key: Equals,    mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b=" }
  - { key: Grave,     mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b`"  } 
  - { key: Period,    mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b."  } 
  - { key: Backslash, mods: Alt,    chars: "\x1b\\" } 
  - { key: Space,    mods: Control, chars: "\x00" }
  - { key: Grave,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b~"  } 
  - { key: Key8,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b*"  } 
  - { key: Key3,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b#"  } 
  - { key: Period,    mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b>"  } 
  - { key: Comma,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b<"  } 
  - { key: Minus,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b_"  } 
  - { key: Key5,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b%"  } 
  - { key: Key6,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b^"  } 
  - { key: Backslash, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b|"  } 

[merikan]

@3bluebird
Strange, it looks like it didn't send the n key
Are you using the latest Alacritty rc version?

I'm using Alacritty v0.12.0-rc with the config value option_as_alt: Both
When I start Alacritty with print-event and press Option+n I get the following output:

1. [54.333594328s] [INFO ] [alacritty] winit event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(140174797402112)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 58, state: Pressed, virtual_keycode: Some(LAlt), modifiers: ALT }, is_synthetic: false } }
2. [58.782553420s] [INFO ] [alacritty] winit event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(140174797402112)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 45, state: Pressed, virtual_keycode: Some(N), modifiers: ALT }, is_synthetic: false } }
3. [58.902289590s] [INFO ] [alacritty] winit event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(140174797402112)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 45, state: Released, virtual_keycode: Some(N), modifiers: ALT }, is_synthetic: false } }
4. [59.625484260s] [INFO ] [alacritty] winit event: WindowEvent { window_id: WindowId(WindowId(140174797402112)), event: KeyboardInput { device_id: DeviceId(DeviceId), input: KeyboardInput { scancode: 58, state: Released, virtual_keycode: Some(LAlt), modifiers: (empty) }, is_synthetic: false } }

Look at the Some element and you will see LAlt (left option) and N
The first two have State: Pressed and the other two has Released

Have you tried to remove all your keybindings in Alacaritty just to be sure?

[oriming]

@merikan Haha, after switching to Alacritty v0.12.0-rc, the problem was fixed. I extend my sincerest thanks to you, thank you! 🤣