For some reason, mapping my hardware key as CTRL-R for your GTK version wouldn't work most of the time.

The solution I found was using xbindkeys and running this script.

xte 'keydown Control_L' 'key r' 'keyup Control_L'
xte 'keydown Control_L' 'key r' 'keyup Control_L'
xte 'keydown Control_L' 'key r' 'keyup Control_L'

I'm sending out that signal 3 times all at once now, but still, that seems to only work half of the time.

Anyway, with your QT release, I guess this trick no longer works at all.