Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Hi all. Does anyone know of a way to change / modify the QWERTY layout
to another standard like left/right/standard Dvorak for the virtual keyboard? Thanks.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Here is what you need to customize the layout of a virtual keyboard:
1) Get the decode_vkb perl script. You use this script on the appropriate VKB file in /usr/share/keyboards to convert the VKB into an editable XML document.
2) Get both deb from here for the appropriate architecture (depending if you are doing this on the device or on a linux x86 workstation). Use ar and tar to extract the files from the deb, and then to extract the gen_vkb executable and the libimlayouts shared object from the installation archives. Put them both in the same folder -- to run you need to add the current path to LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Now you have the tools. Simply decode the VKB to XML, edit the file, and then re-encode it using gen_vkb. Move the generated .vkb file to /usr/share/keyboards, restart the hildon-input daemon and voila!

I have modified the en_GB virtual keyboard so that it uses the Fitaly layout. This worked well under OS2007, but with OS2008 the "baseline" attribute in the keysizes block does not appear to work -- so the keyboard isn't as nice.

Documentation is somewhat sporadic, but here is what I found:
1) maemo-dev list

Hope this helps,

Robert B.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Um...roblynn...for those of us who are a little less advanced, would you mind going a bit more into detail on step 2?...I've decoded my vkb file and edited the resulting xml, but I'm not quite sure how to reencode it. I have the deb files, and I managed to use ar (something new to me) to extract files from one, but that's about as far as I can get...

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Ok, to simplify, I extracted the necessary files into a tar archive, available here.

Download the file on the tablet and untar using
This will create a folder name gen_vkb_arm in which the files will be created. Simply copy/move your xml file into this folder, cd into it, and type:
This will create a *.vkb in the current directory which you can the move/copy to /usr/share/keyboards. To have the updated config loaded into memory, you need to kill(1) the hildon-input-method process (the one with the largest process id):
Hope this helps,

Robert B.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

It worked perfectly! I now have an easily accessible dash and pipe...that's going to make life so much easier!

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Thanks very much for this info! I was able to move the thumb keyboard "spacebar" to the lower right corner. Now the letters are correctly aligned like on a real keyboard. I always had so much trouble with the bottom row letters (z,x,c,v,b,n,m). I also added asterisk, pipe, and backslash to the ".,-" key. No more need to switch tabs for star!

I'm surprised it was so easy to do. Thanks again for the useful information. It makes me think we need a central location for users to post their customized keyboards.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Well, \ is already on the alpha keyboard. Shift+/, and I hope you know about the shift gesture? drag the key up ~1 key height to insert shifted version. But * and | would be a royal pain if I used the thumb-board much for xterm work. I more usually pull out my BT, even when I'm walking around. (Cradle keyboard on right arm, N800 in right hand, tap keys with left hand, wish I had N810's keyboard with brain.)

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

up

I wanna change default keyboard on my N810

but I only see binaries nad script for OS2007 - will'em work properly on OS2008?

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

If you don't want to go that route, I'm using ukeyboard on my n800. It works fine with OS2008, and lets you simply pick "Dvorak" in the text input settings dialog.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

On the same topic, how do I replace the keyboard bitmaps? The recognizability on some of them could be much higher - eg Return could have a solid, possibly orange, arrow rather than a thinly outlined white arrow...

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Hmm... I think those probably live in your theme directories, but I'm not at all sure.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

I could use some help with Step 1. After I download decode_vkb I end up with a file called decode_vkb.htm. If I doubleclick it, I get an html page with three links. One is a read me, one is a license, and one is, I suppose, a perl script: decode_vkb.pl

I have no idea what to do with that perl script. Clicking it in MicroB gets me a File Not Found error. But the script doesn't seem accessible other than from within html. Maybe I need some perl software, or I'm just lost.

To summarize, I have no idea about how to "use this [perl] script on the appropriate VKB file ... to convert the VKB into an editable XML document."

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Use his second post.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

That post details Step 2; I'm lost at Step 1: creating the xml file.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

No, he's already done the bit with decode-vkb so that step is not needed anymore.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

But "the bit with decode-vkb" is Step 1. He's done it, but I haven't!

"1) Get the decode_vkb perl script. You use this script on the appropriate VKB file in /usr/share/keyboards to convert the VKB into an editable XML document." When I "get" the perl script, it appears to me to be part of an html file. I don't know how to get it out of there and what to do with it.

It seems to me that what he does in Post #4 assumes you have completed Step 1, that you already have converted the VKB file into an XML file -- that's what I can't do.

(And, Faheem, I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but aren't you supposed to be in school now! ;) )

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Oh sorry! I forget, you are right. Give me a sec, and i'll help you out.

Hehe, not today, bank holiday monday :)

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

No rush, time for me to head back to bed! Have a fun day off :)

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Ok, make sure you have the tar from #4 extracted to the /home/user/MyDocs folder.
Save this http://idoru.metadreams.net/~kimju/s.../decode_vkb.pl - in the gen_vkb_arm folder.

Now, "cd /home/user/MyDocs/gen_vkb_arm" and run "chmod +x ./decode_vkb.pl"
(I assume you use american english layout)
run
"cp /usr/share/keyboards/en_US.vkb ."

now "./decode_vkb.pl en_US.vkb > en_US.xml"

and u now have a xml file :)

Thanks! :)

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

I noticed that the standard OSK layout shows a little, thin key to the left of the spacebar that I can tap on. Is this a valid key? Can I assign CTRL to this key, so I don't have to use the sidebar in Xterm?

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

You're thanking me? Au contraire (you'll see momentarily how inappropriate this French is from the new me).

Something went wrong, but I don't know if it's worth my getting it right. The only thing that didn't look like what you said was that the decode_vkb.pl file downloaded as decode_vkb_pl.html. So I just changed the name. And then followed the rest of the directions.

But when I ran the perl file in Xterm I got some sort of error (sorry I don't recall what it said). The upshot was that it made the xml file, but it had 0 bytes. (Also, instead of using "en_US.vkb > en_US.xml" I used "fr_CA.vkb > fr_CA.xml" in this experiment.)

The reason I don't know if I'm going to continue on the project is that I've become British and now I have a "-" on my keyboard. I also find that I'm speaking more clearly.

But I had already become British by the time I tried the perl script, and the reason I continued anyway is that I thought maybe I could make a key-press that would output not a single character but a whole string of characters, thus creating a poor-man's TypeItIn (and here too), which I've been seeking.

But looking at the ReadMe for decode-vkb makes me think that this is probably not possible. What do you think?

Thank you!

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Hmmm, intersting. I was wondering If I could make a mult-button. Like with the full screen keyboard, the ". , - ? ! @ & ; : / < >" key that toggles amongst responses. I'd like to do that with the / adding \ [ ] { } < >, and ; adding :, and ' adding " Then I also miss those extra keys on the stylus keyboard adding - to the + key.

That looks like it should be possible, just copy the code for the ". , - ? ! @ & ; : / < >" key. It would probably be a while before I attempt this (most likely after Diablo). With any luck diablo will make the issue mute... or I might get a USB keyboard first.

To Gerald; for scripts it might be a easier to port your typeitin.

Re: Virtual keyboard layout change/mod?
 

Well, you may hold out for the USB (or BT) keyboard, but no luck with Diablo; it doesn't have the keyboards changed (that I know of). It should work that way, but may not. Generally speaking, when there is a spec and exactly one implementation, anything that's in the spec but not used in the default config may be presumed absent. ;) (Half-kidding here; don't bet it works, but it might.)