Keyboard Debate
From Openmoko
Summary of the problem
Om 2008.8 uses Qtopia for its phone stack. Qtopia has a build-in keyboard primarily designed to compose SMS in English. This keyboard is very impractical to use with a terminal or enter an URL.
More details..., list of all keyboard bugs in the defect tracking system.
List of available keyboards
Qtopia keyboard
The Qtopia keyboard build-in Om 2008.8. See also the documentation at Trolltech
Matchbox keyboard
The matchbox keyboard.Illume keyboard
The illume virtual keyboard a.k.a. Raster's keyboard.
Probably looking like this or like that.
See also Illume#Virtual_Keyboard (which would need to be completed ;)
Vkbd system
The vkbd system.
How to use the Qtopia keyboard shipped with Om 2008.8 ?
Summary:
- Slide finger left = backspace.
- Slide finger right = space.
- Slide finger up/down = changes between lowercase/uppercase/numbers/special characters.
- The 'Enter' key is bottom right on the special characters page
- Hovering over a letter for more than 2 seconds activates zoom mode, allowing you to type specific letters without prediction.
Detailed version: see How to use the Qtopia keyboard.
How to have a toggle button to make the keyboard appear/disappear ?
Short answer: In 2008.8, opkg install illume-config. In testing, edit '/etc/enlightenment/default_profile' to use illume theme instead of 'asu'. Long answer: here.
How to install the matchbox keyboard ?
Short answer: opkg install matchbox-keyboard-applet matchbox-keyboard-inputmethod Long answer: here.
How to install the illume (Raster's) keyboard ?
Short answer: opkg install illume-config-illume
Detailed answer:
1. opkg install illume-config (Get the qwerty button if not there yet) 2. add "export QTOPIA_NO_VIRTUAL_KEYBOARD=1" in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/89qtopia (Turn off built-in qtopia keyboard) 3. opkg install illume-config-illume 5. rm -rf ~/.e/e/config/illume (Purge E's cache) 6. /etc/init.d/xserver-nodm restart (Restart X)
Then switch keyboard from "None" to "Default" in Illume's preferences.
How to turn off the Qtopia keyboard ?
Short answer: Add the line export QTOPIA_NO_VIRTUAL_KEYBOARD=1 into the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/89qtopia.
Warning: Even when you install another keyboard, if you do not turn off the Qtopia keyboard it will come back on the top to bite you trollishly. References:
Comment on ticket 1864, and untested proposed
patch to qpe.
How to change the keyboards layout ?
TBD
matchbox
See instructions on the Change matchbox keyboard layout page.
illume
Install illume-keyboard-terminal package :) they are all recommended ones for illume.
How to change the dictionary used by the predictive keyboards ?
General instructions for the Qtopia keyboard are as follows.
First, compile the wordlist on your Linux box:
wget http://www.3v1n0.net/openmoko/qtopia-italian-keyboard.tar.bz2 tar xvf qtopia-italian-keyboard.tar.bz2 wget ftp://ftp.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/pub/mirror/openwall/wordlists/languages/***YourLanguageHere***/lower.gz gunzip lower.gz ./qdawggen -d lang_LANG lower mv lang_LANG/lower.dawg words.dawg
Second, move the English dictionary out of the way, on your Neo:
cd /opt/Qtopia/etc/dict/ cp -r en_EN lang_LANG rm lang_LANG/words.dawg
Third, back on your Linux box, send the dictionary:
scp words.dawg root@192.168.0.202:/opt/Qtopia/etc/dict/lang_LANG/words.dawg
Fourth, edit /opt/Qtopia/etc/default/Trolltech/locale.conf to change the language
[Language] InputLanguages = lang_LANG Language = lang_LANG
Fifth, restart X or reboot your Neo.
Precompiled words.dawg: http://alasal.be/openmoko/keyboard
For illume:
The Terminal layout has an empty dictionary. The words you type are entered automatically in the dictionary.
To add another language you have to do the following steps: - Get a dictionary file from your computer. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, it is located in /usr/share/dict To add a dictionary you can find them by typing : apt-cache search wordlist|grep ^w|sort and install it on your computer with : apt-get install wfrench (replace french with your language) - Copy the dictionary to your freerunner in /usr/lib/enlightenment/modules/illume/dicts/ for example do : scp /usr/share/dict/french root@192.168.0.202:/usr/lib/enlightenment/modules/illume/dicts/French.dic - Now you can choose your language in the upper left corner of the keyboard !
Matchbox has no predictive mode (to be confirmed ?).
How to toggle the predictive mode on and off ?
TBD
How to make Qtopia keyboards and illume/raster keyboard coexist ?
TBD
Your short-term options
- Turn off the Qtopia keyboard and install the matchbox one instead.
- Keep the Qtopia keyboard, let go (for a while) the desire to use the terminal locally, login remotely via ssh when you need.
- Get an external keyboard, USB or Bluetooth, light and foldable if you want.
- Switch to 2007.2 (but then similar issues arise : Switching Keyboards on Om 2007.2), FSO or Debian.
- Patch Qtopia so that it plays nice with other keyboards, send upstream, meanwhile recompile and provide a package.
PS: Complaining that management does not listen to the users needs is not a productive option.
Perspectives for long-term resolution
On August 27th 2008, Marek from Openmoko inc. announced the intention to focus on the low-level layers. Future "base system" distribution may not include any phone stack at all.