3 Apr
2015
3 Apr
'15
8:36 a.m.
Hello all,
I found a second hand Acer Iconia TAB W500 - for those who don't know the
beast, it's an X86 Tablet with an optional usb keyboard and relatively modest
specs (an AMD dual core C-50 at 1GHz).
The fun of this project was to see if a Linux Tablet is usable.
It turns out (not surprisingly) that Linux does run very happily on this
machine, but that as good as no distribution (that I have found) offers a
sensible user interface for a touch screen.
Debian stable + Gnome 3 is unusable (stays stuck all the time).
openSuSE with KDE 4 looks nice but I could not find a way to get the UI
elements in a size usable with my fingers.
The best I got yet is Ubuntu with Unity. It's a disaster when it comes to
administrate the computer, but it's the best UI for usability.
While researching for this project I re-read what KDE 4 devs had said about
having to give up KDE 3 because it was not "touchfriendly", so I tried TDE on
Ubuntu. Now, TDE is actually very usable on a touchscreen. There is ONE
problem - I can't find a way to activate an onscreen keyboard.
Ubuntu/Unity starts a tool called "onboard" that works almost as expected
(does not always seem to see if an external keyboard is present). It seems to
be linked to lightdm.
I can try to run Trinity with lightdm. Or has anyone a suggestion as to how to
get an onscreen keyboard with tdm?
Ah, and there would also be the problem of emulating the right mouse button
click. Without this it's very difficule to work in tablet mode.
Happy easter!
Thierry
3 Apr
3 Apr
11:11 a.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
On Fri, 3 Apr 2015 10:36:12 +0200
Thierry de Coulon <tcoulon(a)decoulon.ch> wrote:
While researching for this project I re-read what KDE
4 devs had said about
having to give up KDE 3 because it was not "touchfriendly", so I tried TDE on
Ubuntu. Now, TDE is actually very usable on a touchscreen. There is ONE
problem - I can't find a way to activate an onscreen keyboard.
Ubuntu/Unity starts a tool called "onboard" that works almost as expected
(does not always seem to see if an external keyboard is present). It seems to
be linked to lightdm.
I can try to run Trinity with lightdm. Or has anyone a suggestion as to how to
get an onscreen keyboard with tdm?
Actual deps for Onboard 1.1.1, according to the first ebuild I checked:
at-spi2-core, iso-codes, glib, libappindicator, dbus-python, pycairo, dconf (gnome),
mousetweaks (gnome), libcanberra, cairo, gdk-pixbuf, gtk+-3, pango, X. In other
words, lightdm is not a requirement per se (although that doesn't mean it'll
work with tdm).
It looks like another option would be xvkbd ( http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/ ),
which only requires basic X libraries. A project called xkbd appears to be similar, but
has no surviving homepage (your distro might still package it). Matchbox-keyboard has
been subsumed by another project, but again, your distro might still have a package.
Those are all the possibilities I could find in a hurry.
E. Liddell
11:46 a.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
On Friday 03 April 2015 13.11:12 E. Liddell wrote:
Actual deps for Onboard 1.1.1, according to the first
ebuild I checked:
at-spi2-core, iso-codes, glib, libappindicator, dbus-python, pycairo, dconf
(gnome), mousetweaks (gnome), libcanberra, cairo, gdk-pixbuf, gtk+-3,
pango, X. In other words, lightdm is not a requirement per se (although
that doesn't mean it'll work with tdm).
I'll take a look. I haven't yet understood "how" the sstem decides to
pop up
the keyboard. It does it with Unity/lightdm. It does not with tdm. What I
also seem to see is that if I install Trinit 13 I can both run TDE with
lightdm (but onboard does not pop up) and Unity with kdm. But after upgrading
to R14 Unity no more works (even if I go bakc to lightdm)...
It looks like another option would be xvkbd (
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/ ), which only requires basic X
libraries. A project called xkbd appears to be similar, but has no
surviving homepage (your distro might still package it). Matchbox-keyboard
has been subsumed by another project, but again, your distro might still
have a package.
xvkdb runs. I'd have to find a way to launch it without a keyboard - and
without reading the manpage I can't fugure out how to make it bigger, the
default siuze is a bit tiny. It does offer a nice range of layouts, however.
Those are all the possibilities I could find in a
hurry.
E. Liddell
Thank you for your hints, I'll take a look and report about the result.
Thierry
11:20 a.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
Dne pá 3. dubna 2015 Thierry de Coulon napsal(a):
Hello all,
I found a second hand Acer Iconia TAB W500 - for those who don't know the
beast, it's an X86 Tablet with an optional usb keyboard and relatively
modest specs (an AMD dual core C-50 at 1GHz).
The fun of this project was to see if a Linux Tablet is usable.
It turns out (not surprisingly) that Linux does run very happily on this
machine, but that as good as no distribution (that I have found) offers a
sensible user interface for a touch screen.
Debian stable + Gnome 3 is unusable (stays stuck all the time).
openSuSE with KDE 4 looks nice but I could not find a way to get the UI
elements in a size usable with my fingers.
The best I got yet is Ubuntu with Unity. It's a disaster when it comes to
administrate the computer, but it's the best UI for usability.
While researching for this project I re-read what KDE 4 devs had said about
having to give up KDE 3 because it was not "touchfriendly", so I tried TDE
on Ubuntu. Now, TDE is actually very usable on a touchscreen. There is ONE
problem - I can't find a way to activate an onscreen keyboard.
Ubuntu/Unity starts a tool called "onboard" that works almost as expected
(does not always seem to see if an external keyboard is present). It seems
to be linked to lightdm.
I can try to run Trinity with lightdm. Or has anyone a suggestion as to how
to get an onscreen keyboard with tdm?
Ah, and there would also be the problem of emulating the right mouse button
click. Without this it's very difficule to work in tablet mode.
Happy easter!
Thierry
You can install application kvkbd.
--
Slávek
11:58 a.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
Dne pá 3. dubna 2015 Thierry de Coulon napsal(a):
On Friday 03 April 2015 13.20:31 Slávek Banko wrote:
http://mirror.xcer.cz/trinity-sb/pool/main-r14/k/kvkbd-trinity/
--
Slávek
You can install application kvkbd.
--
Slávek
Seems no more to be available for 14.04. I might try with 12.04
Thierry
5 Apr
5 Apr
8:30 p.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
On Friday 03 April 2015 13.58:20 Slávek Banko wrote:
Dne pá 3. dubna 2015 Thierry de Coulon napsal(a):
Thanks a lot Slávek. kvkbd-trinity does the trick (while xvkdb could not be
resized without crashing). Perfect onscreen keyboard.
So I've got Trinity running on my Tablet. It works fairly well, and with kvkbd
I've got an keyboard when using the tablet without the physical keyboard.
Now the only thing I still need to find is how to get someting like "long
press = right click" and this Tablet-PC could really be usable.
Thierry
On Friday 03 April 2015 13.20:31 Slávek Banko
wrote:
http://mirror.xcer.cz/trinity-sb/pool/main-r14/k/kvkbd-trinity/
--
Slávek You can install application kvkbd.
--
Slávek
Seems no more to be available for 14.04. I might try with 12.04
Thierry 
8:52 p.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
On Sunday 05 April 2015 22:30:55 Thierry de Coulon wrote:
> > On Friday 03 April 2015 13.20:31 Slávek
Banko wrote:
> > > You can install application kvkbd.
Thanks a lot Slávek. kvkbd-trinity does the trick
(while xvkdb could not be
resized without crashing). Perfect onscreen keyboard.
So I've got Trinity running on my Tablet. It works fairly well, and with
kvkbd I've got an keyboard when using the tablet without the physical
keyboard.
Now the only thing I still need to find is how to get someting like "long
press = right click" and this Tablet-PC could really be usable.
You are lucky :-)
I installed "kvkbd-trinity", but no onscreen-keyboard,
on my touchscreen computer with Jessie.
I did not receive any answer to my mail (04/04 5pm) with the subject :
"Tactile virtual keyboard does'nt appear"
Maybe it's better to change it by :
"No onscreen keyboard on my touchscreen computer"
And the content also :
On TDE Desktop, Debian Jessie, with a touchscreen computer,
i don't get the onscreen-keyboard.
I can open applications and close applications with fingers,
but no onscreen-keyboard.
Also, impossible to zoom with the 3 fingers.
It does't come from the computer, because everything
works well with Windows-8.
Thanks.
André
11:47 p.m.
New subject: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
From: andre_debian(a)numericable.fr
To: trinity-users(a)lists.pearsoncomputing.net
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2015 22:52:45 +0200
Subject: Re: [trinity-users] How to get an onscreen keyboard?
On Sunday 05 April 2015 22:30:55 Thierry de Coulon wrote:
Hi Andre,
First, start kvkbd-trinity, then it will stay in the notification area. You just have to
click on it hen you need it. I am currently doing a similar setup on my newly received
Sagem Spiga mini laptop. It has a keyboard, but the layout is hard to understand and very
strange, so I will rely on the touch screen kb.
I am almost sure that TDE doesn't support multi-touch features at this moment, but it
might be provided by Xorg, so I might be wrong on this one.
-Alexandre
> > On Friday 03 April 2015 13.20:31 Slávek
Banko wrote:
> > > You can install application kvkbd.
Thanks a lot Slávek. kvkbd-trinity does the trick
(while xvkdb could not be
resized without crashing). Perfect onscreen keyboard.
So I've got Trinity running on my Tablet. It works fairly well, and with
kvkbd I've got an keyboard when using the tablet without the physical
keyboard.
Now the only thing I still need to find is how to get someting like "long
press = right click" and this Tablet-PC could really be usable.
You are lucky :-)
I installed "kvkbd-trinity", but no onscreen-keyboard,
on my touchscreen computer with Jessie.
I did not receive any answer to my mail (04/04 5pm) with the subject :
"Tactile virtual keyboard does'nt appear"
Maybe it's better to change it by :
"No onscreen keyboard on my touchscreen computer"
And the content also :
On TDE Desktop, Debian Jessie, with a touchscreen computer,
i don't get the onscreen-keyboard.
I can open applications and close applications with fingers,
but no onscreen-keyboard.
Also, impossible to zoom with the 3 fingers.
It does't come from the computer, because everything
works well with Windows-8.
Thanks.
André
3318
days inactive
3320
days old
8 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Alexandre -
andre_debian＠numericable.fr -
E. Liddell -
Slávek Banko -
Thierry de Coulon