466948 2023-03-06 15:37:34 +0000 A way to show the virtual keyboard manually on demand irrespective of physical input hardware 2026-06-26 20:17:16 +0000 1 1 4 Plasma plasmashell Input Method widget 5.27.2 Arch Linux Linux CONFIRMED https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=467209 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=499522 HI wishlist 1.0 467302 1 alexander.reimelt plasma-bugs-null aleixpol apicultor bizyaev bri59mess bugs.kde.org chris dac.chartrand dennis.lissov el kdebugzilla.fritter759 kde_bugs m1vri31c markjamescapella nate postix putr4.s samuelplavec schmaker seeknknow steve xwaang1976 0 oldest_to_newest 2214320 0 alexander.reimelt 2023-03-06 15:37:34 +0000 I have installed Maliit keyboard and enabled it under the virtual keyboard settings. It currently seems only possible to use the virtual keyboard with touch devices. I have searched the web countless times and never found a way to show the virtual keyboard on a regular laptop. A hotkey/widget to show/hide the virtual keyboard while a physical keyboard is present would be a huge plus. This seems like a big oversight in terms of accessibility. Use cases: - typing on a laptop with damaged keyboard (a friend does this on windows) - typing in a language with different script (I need it to type Russian) - probably more that I'm not familiar with Operating System: Arch Linux KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.2 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0 Qt Version: 5.15.8 Kernel Version: 6.2.2-arch1-1 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 8 × AMD Ryzen 7 2700U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx Memory: 15.3 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Vega 3 / 10 Graphics Manufacturer: LENOVO Product Name: 20KUCTO1WW System Version: ThinkPad E485 2216038 1 nate 2023-03-13 20:49:32 +0000 Yeah, right now when KWin receives the signal to show the virtual keyboard, it ignores it if the input event associated with it wasn't a touch event. This is done to prevent the virtual keyboard from appearing constantly in response to automatic or manually-driven focus events when using a keyboard or pointing device, which would drive people crazy. But, it also prevents the virtual keyboard from being openable manually, as a deliberate user action. We'll probably need a new way to communicate to KWin that we want to force it to show anyway with no event filtering, and then a "Show/hide virtual keyboard" button can use that. 2216041 2 nate 2023-03-13 20:52:16 +0000 *** Bug 460823 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2218928 3 bug-janitor 2023-03-28 14:01:48 +0000 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2780 2218935 4 nate 2023-03-28 14:58:01 +0000 Git commit 508b6710653fd5896d2046561f8ab41aa951cf68 by Nate Graham, on behalf of Alexander Volkov. Committed on 28/03/2023 at 14:57. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'. components/keyboardlayout: Fix forced activation of vkbd We have to register for the metatype to call it from here. M +7 -0 components/keyboardlayout/keyboardlayoutplugin.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/commit/508b6710653fd5896d2046561f8ab41aa951cf68 2218937 5 bug-janitor 2023-03-28 14:59:43 +0000 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2781 2218942 6 nate 2023-03-28 15:24:32 +0000 Git commit 9d4b9cf547037cbb3b4aaf7c21ad08f75ea98f48 by Nate Graham, on behalf of Alexander Volkov. Committed on 28/03/2023 at 14:59. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'Plasma/5.27'. components/keyboardlayout: Fix forced activation of vkbd We have to register for the metatype to call it from here. (cherry picked from commit 508b6710653fd5896d2046561f8ab41aa951cf68) M +7 -0 components/keyboardlayout/keyboardlayoutplugin.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/commit/9d4b9cf547037cbb3b4aaf7c21ad08f75ea98f48 2269588 7 nate 2023-11-29 21:00:51 +0000 *** Bug 477160 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2269634 8 nate 2023-11-29 22:05:45 +0000 *** Bug 477207 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2326590 9 nate 2024-06-11 14:06:11 +0000 *** Bug 488346 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2335396 10 chris 2024-07-06 20:36:50 +0000 Bug 488346 included a request to quickly force open the on-screen keyboard by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (like Gnome does). I'd also love to see that feature, but hesitate to file another bug, given that one was already marked as a dup of this (which doesn't appear to cover that functionality). 2400239 11 nate 2025-02-19 16:46:11 +0000 *** Bug 499522 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2444242 12 dac.chartrand 2025-07-31 14:11:33 +0000 I recently installed Fedora 42 with KDE Plasma, and I’m looking for an on-screen keyboard that allows me to click individual keys with my mouse. In Windows, this feature is called “On-Screen Keyboard,” and in macOS, it can be accessed by clicking “Show Keyboard Viewer” under the keyboard icon in the taskbar. I came across this bug report that describes the issue. The use case involves a child who needs to type French accented letters on a US keyboard, which does not have those characters. Clicking on the letters with a mouse is much easier than trying to train them to use AltGr deadkeys. Thanks for looking into this. 2514162 13 kdedev 2026-05-06 18:54:09 +0000 *** Bug 519561 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** 2515235 14 bug-janitor 2026-05-12 14:10:36 +0000 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/9200 2515510 15 xaver.hugl 2026-05-13 16:48:29 +0000 Git commit 0dfd7c301e07a8898ace9da925bfd180eaf38f8a by Xaver Hugl, on behalf of Yelsin Sepulveda. Committed on 13/05/2026 at 16:19. Pushed by zamundaaa into branch 'master'. inputmethod: replace enablement with visibility modes for the virtual keyboard The modes are - never show the virtual keyboard - only show it with non-mouse inputs - show it with all input devices The input method stays enabled in all cases, since we don't know if it's actually (only) a virtual keyboard or if it handles events from physical keyboards as well. Co-authored-by: Xaver Hugl <xaver.hugl@kde.org> M +1 -1 autotests/integration/inputmethod_test.cpp M +1 -1 autotests/integration/kwin_wayland_test.cpp M +26 -25 autotests/integration/test_virtualkeyboard_dbus.cpp M +29 -35 src/inputmethod.cpp M +15 -4 src/inputmethod.h M +8 -3 src/virtualkeyboard_dbus.cpp M +4 -3 src/virtualkeyboard_dbus.h https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/0dfd7c301e07a8898ace9da925bfd180eaf38f8a 2527162 16 nate 2026-06-26 20:17:16 +0000 *** Bug 522175 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***