Some application-specific hot keys not usable in OOD sessions

OOD sessions overwrite some of the hot keys required for certain unix tools, such as vim and application-specific shortcuts. I’m pretty sure this was a topic brought up in the past at a webinar or at PEARC, but we’re wondering if any workarounds may exist for this.

Thank you,
Robie

Hi Robie, are you talking keyboard shortcuts not working as expected in a NoVNC session?

Yes, that’s correct. We’ve received feedback from our users that there are too many conflicting keyboard shortcuts between their web browser and the interactive application being run in the NoVNC session, and using the hotkeys as a toggle from the drop down menu is not a convenient alternative from their perspective.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll be happy to provide as much information as possible.

Thanks,
Robie

Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately we do not have a fix at this time. NoVNC, the in-browser VNC that OnDemand uses, is limited. Their team is well aware that users would prefer more native keyboard events to be sent to the server, and have not been able to deliver. To pick just two issues from their issue tracker:

The OnDemand team is open to replacing NoVNC if a better alternative exists, and as time permits, but we have not found one thus far.

For users of vi, vim, emacs, etc… I would recommend using OnDemand’s terminal in another browser tab.

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Thank you, we really appreciate your response!