Does anybody know how I can activate Maliit (Plasma’s default on-screen keyboard) under SteamOS Desktop Mode? I have the impression that all my typos are because Steam’s provided keyboard (STEAM+X) is not registering key presses correctly and I want to try an alternative.

/usr/lib/maliit exists but all the usual guides I found don’t work…

  • @Molecular0079
    1•1 year ago

    Maliit has a lot of limitations (no ctrl and arrow keys for example) that make it somewhat annoying to use. I am also not sure if its usable in X11.

    • @woelkchenOP
      2•1 year ago

      Maliit has a lot of limitations (no ctrl and arrow keys for example) that make it somewhat annoying to use.

      I’d like to come to my own conclusions.

      I am also not sure if its usable in X11.

      Literally the first sentence in its Readme says it is.

      • @Molecular0079
        3•1 year ago

        Literally the first sentence in its Readme says it is.

        The README is one thing, in actuality its another. I’ve personally tested it with Arch Linux KDE on both my Surface Pro 7 and a desktop PC with an Acer touch-capable monitor:

        1. There is no Input Devices -> Virtual Keyboards section in KDE System Settings when running in X11, so you can’t even enable Maliit for your X11 session.

        2. There’s a lot of situations in X11 where tapping on a text box won’t trigger onscreen keyboards and since there’s no way to manually trigger Maliit to appear like you can with the Steam keyboard with STEAM + X, it is kinda broken.

        By all means, feel free to tinker. You probably need to disable the read-only filesystem on SteamOS in order to properly install the Maliit package. All I am saying is don’t expect an experience that’s usable in SteamOS’s X11 desktop session.