Shortcut to insert a special character

elusian The hard part will be finding out what is grabbing the keys...

1. In other distros, once Ctrl+Shift+U is pressed, the "underlined lower case u" character appears, indicating that hexadecimal Unicode value is expected. Hex digits also appear as you type them in.

   The "underlined lower case u" does not appear in Solus. Hex digits do not appear as you type them in. Nevertheless, as @johano says, the shortcut works. Try to enter Unicode value without expecting that "underlined lower case u" will appear, exactly as @johano suggests.

   This is Greek capital "psi" character Ψ, Unicode = 0x03A8, typed in in Σολυς using Ctrl+Shift+U shortcut.

2. IBus, specifically ibus-daemon, is known to be in conflict with Unicode shortcut. Make sure that IBus is not running in your system. It is not running if the command below returns nothing but the command itself:

   $ ps aux | grep -i ibus
   just      2167  0.0  0.0 216132  2420 pts/1    S+   10:50   0:00 grep -i ibus
   $ 

   If appropriate, then try to:

   • change "Keyboard input method system" from "IBus" to "None"

   • kill running ibus-daemon process

Good luck

elusian

Ctrl+Shift+U behaves differently in different Solus DEs. Which one do you use?

Edit: In Solus Plasma the shortcut does NOT work at all, neither with IBus disabled (default in Plasma) nor with IBus enabled.

elusian Ok, let's go with Budgie.

Ctrl+Shift+U behaves slightly differently in various applications, even within the same DE. I'll use gnome-terminal (or simply "terminal") in the example.

1. Open terminal window

2. Bash prompt is shown

3. Cursor blinks at the end of the prompt

4. Press Ctrl+Shift+U. More exactly, I use Left Ctrl and Left Shift, so in sequence:

   • press and hold down the Left Ctrl with left pinky

   • press and hold down the Left Shift with ring finger

   • finally, hit the U key with right index finger

     At the end of the sequence, three keys were pressed, held down and entered in action - Left Ctrl, Left Shift, and U

5. Once the U key has concluded the three-keys-squence, the blinking cursor disappears in terminal

6. Three keys may be released

7. Terminal cursor not just disappears - it is replaced by the "underlined lower case u letter" in terminal

8. It's the Unicode prompt; indicates that a Unicode value is expected to be typed in

9. Let's continue the example with the mathematical symbol psi, the Greek capital letter Ψ. Its hex Unicode is 0x03a8.

10. Right now you see the Unicode prompt and nothing else in terminal. No key is pressed at the moment.

11. With right index finger (or with any finger you prefer ) slowly hit four hex digits (keys):

    • 0
    • 3
    • a
    • 8
      Only four keys have been pressed: 0 3 a 8

12. As you press and release hex digits, Unicode prompt - the "underlined lower case u letter" - extends to the right with the digits you press. They are also underlined in terrminal, along with the initial u letter

13. Finally, you'll see in terminal, at the end of bash prompt, the underlined string of five chars: u03a8

14. Hit Enter key

15. The Unicode sequence - underlined u03a8 string - is immediately replaced by the corresponding Unicode character

16. It's the Ψ letter in your terminal

17. Done