How to fix not working ⌘ ⎋ shortcut in Lion 10.7

I have a new MacBook Pro 15" early 2011 and use Lion.

1. For "Launchpad" I can't use the Shortcut F1.
2. For "Move focus to menu bar" I can't use the Shortcut Cmd+Esc (⌘+⎋).

Simply said, there are functions, which are not working with one specific Shortcut. I can assign it, but it does not work.

The Shortcuts works for all the other functions and the one function works with all the other Shortcuts.

Sometimes when I wildly clicked around and restarted, the shortcut Cmd+Esc (⌘+⎋) worked with "Move focus to menu bar" one time.

What could I do to fix the bug?

Solution 1:

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> and assign and enable the shortcuts you want.

Solution 2:

I've realized that the ctrl-Fn shortcuts only work if I tick the option to use the function keys as "normal function keys". This option is in Systems Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard. I believe it is unticked by default (ie the Fn keys work as shortcuts for brightness, sound level, and music playing). Once ticked, Ctrl-F2 works like a charm. Alternatively, you can leave this option unchecked and instead hit CTRL+fn+F2 and the intended function will work fine.