Broken Keyboard Shortcuts in Texmaker with Ubuntu 14.10

The latest release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn), was released on October 23, 2014, and like many others I immediately updated my primary machine. Moving to a new version of any operating system on launch day can expose you to bugs that haven't been fixed yet.

With this release, I noticed a problem with my preferred LaTeX editor, Texmaker. Namely, many keyboard shortcuts no longer worked. Most importantly, I could no longer use a keyboard shortcut to "Quick Build," which greatly impacted my normal workflow. Looking online I found bug reports here and here. It seems that the problem lies with Qt5 in 14.10. Fortunately, the author of Texmaker still provides versions of Texmaker which are complied with Qt4.

First, you will need to remove the current version of Texmaker. This can be accomplished with the following command:

sudo apt-get remove texmaker

In the interest in being tidy, you can then run

sudo apt-get autoremove

to remove some Qt5 files that you no longer need.

Now, go to the Texmaker download page and download the Qt4 files for your architecture. Once this file has downloaded, double click it and when software center opens, click install. As the configuration files work for both the Qt4 and Qt5 versions, you settings should still be intact.

Note: Ubuntu considers the Qt5 version to be an updated version of the Qt4 package we installed. Thus, it will prompt you that an update is available. If you allow this update, you will again break the keyboard shortcuts unless the Qt5 version has been patched after this posting.

This is a post.

Every year, about this time, I take part in a tradition shared by many on the internet. That time when we notice that that blog we started a year ago remains pitifully empty and we curse our laziness. I have been though this routine several times and each time I tell myself that if only it was easier to post, I would definitely post more often. This thought leads me to switch from one platform to another in the search of something that will keep me motivated to post ... anything. This year, I am again switching platforms, but I am switching back to blogger. I don't need anything fancy. I just, for some reason, feel the need to have some sort of blog.

I am also setting a different expectation about what I am going to write about. Rather than writing about the event of my life, I am going to post my thoughts on ... whatever. I don't need to narrate my life on a blog. The things that happen to me are easily conveyed to the masses via various social networks. What I have noticed is that I don't spend a lot of time just chatting anymore. This is probably a side effect of being a graduate student but, regardless, I need a place to put those thoughts. Thus, a blog.