Choice of keyboards?

Librem Phones (Librem 5)
#1

I have noticed that the L5 offers two keyboard layouts (at least for portrait layout, not sure how it is for landscape orientation: the disk encryption pass code can only be entered in portrait orientation).

There is the one that shows up during regular use of the phone, for instance when typing in a text editor or the browser or other apps. There are two versions of this: the simple, standard one, and the terminal one.
With this keyboard the pressed keys do not show up next your finger.

The other keyboard shows up when the L5 starts up. It is used for entering the passcode for the disk encryption.
This keyboard has outlines around the keys, and it has the pressed characters popping up next to your finger tip. Both of these features make typing a lot easier.

Is it possible to select the second type of keyboard as the standard keyboard layout, and, if not, why not?

(And on a related matter: I find the portrait mode keyboard way too small, but the landscape mode version, on the other hand, is so big, it obscures most of the screen, making it next to impossible to see what you type. Although switching between the standard and terminal layout once in landscape mode does down size the keyboard somewhat - but this strikes me as unintended behaviour.)

#2

Those are two separate applications, one at boot, and one at OS. I’m not sure if you can use the boot one on the OS but I would guess that no because it’s part of the password prompt.

The landscape switch resizing is a bug indeed. I thought I fixed it. Could you provide the output of dpkg -s squeekboard? I need the version you’re using.

#3

And for maximum clarity, I think this means

dpkg -s squeekboard
?

i.e. the question mark is not part of the command - which is always dicey in shells because sometimes the command will fully work anyway, sometimes it will always do something but always do the wrong thing, sometimes it will only sometimes do the wrong thing, … :wink:

#4

Yes, that’s correct.

#5

There seems to be no easy way to copy the whole dpkg output from the terminal window (ctrl-c doesn’t work as a copy command, and there is no menu option for it), so here is the version number: 1.21.0-1pureos1.

I checked, but the landscape bug is still there. The smaler sized landscape keyboard does work better, though.

Hopefully there will be a wider choice of keyboards in the future. The current portrait version is really awkward when you have bigger fingers.

Thanks for responding so quickly, btw!

#6

Drat, the bug is still there indeed. Just maybe harder to trigger. Working on it.

#7

Using the “Terminal” keyboard, tap the “>_” key, then the “Menu” key. Then you’ll see “Select All” and “Paste”. After you tap “Select All,” you will get “Copy.” After selecting “Copy,” you can paste the text into another application, such as Text Editor.

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Copy and paste doest work on librem5
#8

Should be fixed now. If you want to help, you can try out this version: https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Phosh/squeekboard/-/merge_requests/594

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#9

Ah! The menu-button! Now, there is something of a (semi-)hidden gem. Thanks!

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#10

Sure, I would like to help (that’s the main reason why I post all the comments).
Not sure how to go about things, though…
How do I install the new version?

#11

In the “pipeline” box there’s a download drop-down button. Check out the build_deb:arm64:archive, and inside there’s a .deb file to install.

#12

Thank you. I’ll check it out.

#13

I see four deb-files in there. Which one is the one I need to install?
*Or did I download the wrong artifact?

#14

It’s the one with the simplest name: squeekboard_*.deb

#15

Ah, that’s the 2.8Mb one, if I am not mistaken.

#16

This does not work always. For example in the chats app, I said “Select All”, the background of the message changed to blue (i.e. it was selected), but when I tried to paste it into a vim in the terminal app, nothing was in the buffer.

#17

I managed to extract that deb and I shortened the filename to squeekboard_arm64.deb.
Then I did a 'sudo apt install squeekboard_arm64.deb (in the right directory).
The reply to this was: unable to locate package squeekboard_arm64.deb.

I guess I am doing something wrong. Any help would be welcome…

#18

it’s the ./ in sudo apt install ./squeekboard_arm64.deb

#19

Well it actually resides in my Downloads directory, so I guess that would be ./Downloads/squeek etcetera.

#20

I did not do a thorough test, but it appears the keyboard switches smoothly from portrait to landscape without getting stuck on the wrong size (it does a quick shrink after the rotation).