I tried: % gconftool --unset /apps/osso/keybindings/global/osso-global-search and % gconftool -u /apps/osso/keybindings/global/osso-global-search both as user and as root and while it doesn't report any error, it doesn't remove the key. % gconftool --get /apps/osso/keybindings/global/osso-global-search still reports <ctrl>e and ctrl-e still brings up the search menu. OK. I figured it out. You need to do: % gconftool --set /apps/osso/keybindings/global/osso-global-search --type string disabled Jeff (http://www.ece.purdue.edu/~qobi)