Bug 181554

Summary: Screen keyboard when screen is locked
Product: [Plasma] kscreenlocker Reporter: Ramon Antonio Parada (brainsqueezer) <rap>
Component: greeterAssignee: David Edmundson <kde>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: wishlist CC: bhush94, hsanson, jk, kdestuff, matthias.sweertvaegher, mgraesslin, mm, skaumo, ultrajej, whynot
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Compiled Sources   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Ramon Antonio Parada (brainsqueezer) 2009-01-22 01:38:03 UTC 
Version:           4.2rc1 (using Devel)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Compiled sources



For people using tablet PCs screen lock means you have to open the keyboard just to unlock your computer. Best user experience in this area is offered by Windows Vista that offers keyboards with this features:

- Adapted for both stylus and touch input
- Takes in account user keyboard layout
- Two different keyboards one for login/unlock (fixed) and other for inside session usage (can be hidden and moved around the screen)
- Three input modes: keyboard, handwritten separate letters, handwritter continuous text

Using KDE best alternative is to use CellWritter for login and inside session but cannot be used for unlock. Offers these features:
- Only stylus input
- Doesn't take in account keyboard layout
- Can be hidden in System Tray
- Two input modes: keyboard, handwritten separate letters

There were some bugs related to this like https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54583 . Offering the usage of non KDE applications but those can't be used for unlock.
Comment 1 Lamarque V. Souza 2011-04-09 09:50:50 UTC 
*** Bug 200733 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 ultrajej 2011-08-21 15:48:14 UTC 
It should handle multiple languages layout (such as Korean...) when the account user keyboard layout is english
Comment 3 Martin Flöser 2015-01-23 10:22:52 UTC 
*** Bug 306596 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Wolfgang Bauer 2015-07-29 09:19:33 UTC 
*** Bug 349629 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Josef Kufner 2015-10-13 13:56:04 UTC 
CellWriter is surprisingly good on-screen keyboard. But it is a Gtk program, so it will not integrate with plasma shell nicely. I would really like to see plasma port of CellWriter. It has nice algorithms to learn and recognize hand-written text and on-screen keyboard works well too.

Two modes (in-session mode and lock screen mode) are good idea. Same should apply to login screen as well. It may load user's settings when on login/lock screen when user's name is selected/entered.

The on-screen keyboard should be displayed automaticaly when user touches (with finger) the input field (QLineEdit). I've seen feature request on this too (can't find it now).
Comment 6 matthias sweertvaegher 2016-06-06 16:07:19 UTC 
i have a virtual machine only accessible through RDP but after some time, keyboard input stops working. Having a button on the lock screen to pop up a virtual keyboard would help a lot..
Comment 7 Christoph Feck 2017-02-09 11:21:01 UTC 
*** Bug 376175 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 skaumo 2017-02-09 14:27:37 UTC 
Seriously this ticket is still "UNCONFIRMED" after 8 years?


Can we not at least acknowledge in 2017 this is indeed an issue?
It can't be denied that most laptops are touch-enabled convertibles where keyboards are often optional.


KDE is the most advanced desktop environment and as such I don't think it's unreasonable for its users to expect a better integration with on-screen keyboards from it.
Comment 9 Martin Flöser 2017-02-09 16:30:18 UTC 
Am 2017-02-09 15:27, schrieb bugzilla_noreply@kde.org:
> COMMENT # 8 [1] ON BUG 181554 [2] FROM SKAUMO@GMAIL.COM
> 
> Seriously this ticket is still "UNCONFIRMED" after 8 years?

(un)confirmed has no meaning in the KDE bug tracker. Apart from that: 
it's kind-of working on Wayland already