Bug 479361

Summary: [OSK] Virtual keyboard - add up to date, useful local documentation
Product: [Applications] systemsettings Reporter: Sergio <sergio.callegari>
Component: kcm_kwinvirtualkeyboardAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: aleixpol, bugs.kde.org, butirsky, isma.af, kdedev, natalie_clarius, nate, newton, th.buskens
Priority: NOR Keywords: accessibility, usability
Version First Reported In: 5.27.10   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Manjaro   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Sergio 2024-01-03 16:09:08 UTC 
# SUMMARY

Trying to activate a virtual keyboard with regular plasma is almost impossible without relying on google (and quite hard also with it). The documentation should be sufficient.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1.  Open System settings
2.  Go to input Devices
3.  Go to Virtual Keyboard

OBSERVED RESULT

See "None" and and that pressing "Help" provides no helpful hint. Namely it says:
```
This module lets you choose the virtual keyboard to use. The virtual keyboard will be automatically enabled when there is no hardware keyboard detected. 
 Select a virtual keyboard from the list or choose None if you do not want to use any virtual keyboard. 
 It is advisable to install corresponding input method engines before using this module.
```

EXPECTED RESULT

Help should provide some helpful hints.

Some examples:

- How to populate the list of available virtual keyboard? Please provide a list of virtual keyboards that are known to be compatible with KDE Plasma (or a link to it), so the user can search for them on a distro package manager or otherwise.

- Is being on plasma/X11 or plasma/Wayland equivalent wrt virtual keyboards? Apparently not. If this is the case, please say so. Also say if on wayland, X11 apps relying on Xwayland will get the virtual keyboard.  Apparently, non Wayland apps, do not auto open a virtual keyboard. Is there a way to force open it for them? If so, please say. If not, please also say, so the user can know what to expect.

- After some google searching you may find out that installing `maliit` gives you an entry on the list. But the maliit keyboard, that may be suitable for some mobile shell is not useful in the regular plasma shell as it lacks special keys (ctrl, tab, meta). Say if there is a way to get these keys on a virtual keyboard or if there is a working OSK for wayland supported by KDE providing these keys.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.10
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.113.0
Qt Version: 5.15.11
Kernel Version: 6.6.8-2-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Please consider that having an OSK is important, both to be able to properly use plasma on 2-in-1 devices and for accessibility.  The current situation makes it difficult even to report bugs about OSKs in Plasma.
Comment 1 Tobias Zwick 2025-04-29 16:15:42 UTC 
In Fedora 42 (systemsettings 6.3.4) displays also IBus Wayland and Maliit as selectable. But there is no information on how to actually open OR configure them. So (, I agree,) there should either be documentation or an obvious way to start/configure them.

Pressing the help button in this screen leads nowhere: "Documentation not found".

When e.g. IBus Wayland is selected, and the physical keyboard is disconnected, and a text field in some application is selected the selected keyboard does NOT appear automatically. (Maybe that is a separate issue, though 🤷)
Comment 2 TraceyC 2025-06-19 19:36:34 UTC 
This situation is still the same with Plasma 6.4.0
1. The "Help" button opens up the out of date wiki page for Plasma 5.22 (2021-04-27) that has the text quoted in the original report, which is not very descriptive
2. The docs are online, and therefore inaccessible if the system cannot access the Internet

While the docs team is working on updating the online wiki, something that would be actionable for System Settings is to provide an informational pop-up, as is done for other areas like Animations. There's a ? next to "Global animation speed"