BalenaBlocks Browser | Virtual Keyboard isn't visible on my Rpi's touch screen

Project help
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1

Hello everyone,

I am trying to use this beautiful service for my fleet.
I am using this service both on raspberry pi 3 & 4 and I connect a touch screen directly on the raspberry (not HDMI) and I use the KIOSK mode with the mouse cursor enabled.

Everything is working as expected but I can not find a way to make the virtual keyboard to appear while I am focusing on an input.

My environment variables are set as the example above:

environment:
  PERSISTENT: 1
  LAUNCH_URL: 'https://mywebsite.io'
  KIOSK: 1
  SHOW_CURSOR: 1
  ENABLE_GPU: 1
  FLAGS: '--enable-touchview=1 --enable-viewport=1 --enable-virtual-keyboard=1 --has-chromeos-keyboard=1'

Dockerfile.template

FROM balenablocks/browser:%%BALENA_MACHINE_NAME%%

Am I missing something?
Thank you in advanced! Stay safe…

5

Hi there,

I’m the maintainer for the browser block. We do have an open issue for this, as it’s a known feature we would like: Provide an on-screen keyboard · Issue #28 · balenablocks/browser · GitHub

The problem is that the block does not install a window manager. It’s pure X11 with Chromium being opened on the display. We would need to install something like matchbox-window-manager and matchbox-keyboard and then your flags should make Chromium display it at the correct times.

There is nobody from balena working on that feature at the moment, but if you follow it you will be notified if anyone (balena or from the community) takes it on. :slight_smile:

Phil

7

Thank you very much for the info Phil!

I will follow the relative thread in the repository, I should have detect it before I asked :no_mouth:

StPaulis

8

Heh, no problem at all - thanks for letting us know you also want the feature. :slight_smile:

Feel free to have a stab at it, and let us know if you get close or need more help.

Phil