Keyboard Debate
From Openmoko
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Contents |
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
Vkbd system
The vkbd system.
How to use the Qtopia keyboard shipped with Om 2008.8 ?
How to have a toggle button to make the keyboard appear/disappear ?
How to change the keyboards layout ?
How to change the dictionary used by the predictive keyboards ?
How to toggle the predictive mode on and off ?
How to turn off Qtopia keyboard ? According to Comment on ticket 1864: You can put "export QTOPIA_NO_VIRTUAL_KEYBOARD=1" into /etc/X11/Xsession.d/89Qtopia and qpe will not instantiate a virtual keyboard and illume's keyboard should be shown. Another option involves patching and recompiling qpe.
Your short-term options
- Live with it, 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, FSO or Debian.
- Recompile Qtopia 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.