Bug 430850

Summary: Annoying "Virtual keyboard enabled" notification appears after Bluetooth keyboards turns off after a period of inactivity
Product: [Plasma] kwin Reporter: Mads <mads>
Component: virtual-keyboardAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: butirsky, mads, nate, null
Priority: NOR Keywords: usability
Version First Reported In: 5.20.4   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Gentoo Packages   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/commit/92fb680b04463593c78fcfa4a71e9682805281b4 Version Fixed/Implemented In: 5.22
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Mads 2020-12-27 13:08:49 UTC 
SUMMARY
You can't force disable the virtual keyboard in KDE Plasma. This is troublesome if your PC only has a bluetooth keyboard connected.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
If you have e.g. an HTPC with only a bluetooth keyboard connected, and this keyboard has power management enabled (so it disconnects after e.g. 10 minutes of inactivity), you will not be able to avoid getting a message saying "On-screen virtual keyboard enabled" when the power to the keyboard turns off. And when you activate the keyboard again you'll get the message "On-screen virtual keyboard disabled". This is not ideal, especially since there's no way of disabling this behaviour.

OBSERVED RESULT
Everytime the bluetooth keyboard turns off or on, you'll get a message saying so, often during watching a movie.

EXPECTED RESULT
You can't always deduce out from hw configuration if it makes sense to have a on screen keyboard appear or not, so we really should have a way to force disable it to ever appear.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: 
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.20.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.77
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This was tested in a Wayland environment.
Comment 1 Mads 2020-12-27 13:11:31 UTC 
Here's a quick patch to disable the message if anyone needs it:

diff --git a/virtualkeyboard.cpp b/virtualkeyboard.cpp
index 85c7da2..9e682bc 100644
--- a/virtualkeyboard.cpp
+++ b/virtualkeyboard.cpp
@@ -233,17 +233,6 @@ void VirtualKeyboard::setEnabled(bool enabled)
         return;
     }
     m_enabled = enabled;
-    emit enabledChanged(m_enabled);
-
-    // send OSD message
-    QDBusMessage msg = QDBusMessage::createMethodCall(
-        QStringLiteral("org.kde.plasmashell"),
-        QStringLiteral("/org/kde/osdService"),
-        QStringLiteral("org.kde.osdService"),
-        QStringLiteral("virtualKeyboardEnabledChanged")
-    );
-    msg.setArguments({enabled});
-    QDBusConnection::sessionBus().asyncCall(msg);
 }
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2021-01-05 17:28:54 UTC 
Makes sense, though it seems like this maybe is a bug in how KWin handles Bluetooth keyboards that have disconnected, or in how it shows a notification when the virtual keyboard is enabled.
Comment 3 Aleix Pol 2021-04-26 12:44:57 UTC 
Git commit 92fb680b04463593c78fcfa4a71e9682805281b4 by Aleix Pol Gonzalez, on behalf of Aleix Pol.
Committed on 26/04/2021 at 12:40.
Pushed by apol into branch 'master'.

Provide a kcm module to choose a virtual keyboard

M  +1    -0    src/kcmkwin/CMakeLists.txt
A  +28   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/CMakeLists.txt
A  +2    -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/Messages.sh
A  +18   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/kcm_virtualkeyboard.desktop
A  +102  -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/kcmvirtualkeyboard.cpp     [License: GPL(v2.0+)]
A  +55   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/kcmvirtualkeyboard.h     [License: GPL(v2.0+)]
A  +39   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/package/contents/ui/main.qml     [License: GPL(3+eV) GPL(v3.0) GPL(v2.0)]
A  +13   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/package/metadata.desktop
A  +10   -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/virtualkeyboardsettings.kcfg
A  +6    -0    src/kcmkwin/kwinvirtualkeyboard/virtualkeyboardsettings.kcfgc

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/commit/92fb680b04463593c78fcfa4a71e9682805281b4