Beyond terminal emulators, my concern - I do not know if this is founded - is there will be some situations where I cannot input what I need. Does the application not need to be wayland aware?
-- John Ramsden On Mon, Dec 1, 2025, at 3:50 PM, Justin Zobel wrote: > On 2 December 2025 9:48:39 am ACDT, John Ramsden <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I require an on-screen keyboard with full functionality similar to what is >> provided by onboard. Unfortunately these types of on-screen keyboards are >> not found on Wayland, and plasma will be dropping X11 support in 6.8. I >> understand there is work being done to provide a virtual keyboard >> (https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-keyboard) for Wayland. >> >> Unfortunately for my use case I need something that works not only in text >> fields but globally, similar to the functionality you would get from a >> hardware keyboard. I need to be able to issue inputs into terminals, along >> with modifier keys etc. As far as I can tell (and please correct me if I'm >> wrong) but this is not the intention of the virtual keyboards that are being >> provided by plasma for Wayland. >> >> The integrations to provide virtual keyboards appear to be using >> input-method-v1, which allows you to target text inputs. What I'm looking >> for is something that is globally available and allows me to interact with >> my computer as if I'm using a hardware keyboard. I want to be able to issue >> inputs without restrictions (for example trigger global shortcuts) as if I'm >> a regular keyboard user. >> >> I've been looking into some options for doing what I am looking to do, and I >> was seeking some input from plasma developers to make sure what I'm >> attempting to do is actually going down the supported route. I don't want to >> build something that is actively considered misuse of wayland, or is looked >> at as a security concern. >> >> I see a few options: >> >> * Pretend to be a hardware keyboard via an emulated device such as using >> uinput - is this looked down upon since it essentially goes around Wayland? >> Would plasma considered blocking something like emulated devices in the >> future? >> * Ideally use something like zwp_virtual_keyboard_v1 but this does not seem >> to be supported by plasma. Is there any intention to support something like >> this in the future? >> * Use XDG RemoteDesktop Portal - would this be seen as misuse of the API? >> >> Ultimately my use case is I want a keyboard that sits on my desktop and >> allows me to input anything a regular hardware keyboard would be able to >> input. > > Plasma Virtual Keyboard allows input into terminal emulators like Konsole. > Modifier keys I'm not sure on as I'm not at my PC but it is something that > Qmlkonsole supports so it should in theory be possible to add this to PVK.
