Developing onscreen keyboards under Wayland for KDE Plasma

[Aleix Pol]

Hi John,
Yes, we are aware of your use-case. I made a proof of concept here:
https://invent.kde.org/apol/plasma-morekeys

Testing and especially work is very much welcome.

At this moment, my priority is plasma-keyboard and the input-method-v1 use-case.

Best,
Aleix

On Tue, Dec 2, 2025 at 12:19 AM John Ramsden <ramsdenj at riseup.net> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I require an on-screen keyboard with full functionality similar to what is provided by onboard. Unfortunately these types of on-screen keyboards are not found on Wayland, and plasma will be dropping X11 support in 6.8. I understand there is work being done to provide a virtual keyboard (https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-keyboard) for Wayland.
>
> Unfortunately for my use case I need something that works not only in text fields but globally, similar to the functionality you would get from a hardware keyboard. I need to be able to issue inputs into terminals, along with modifier keys etc. As far as I can tell (and please correct me if I'm wrong) but this is not the intention of the virtual keyboards that are being provided by plasma for Wayland.
>
> The integrations to provide virtual keyboards appear to be using input-method-v1, which allows you to target text inputs. What I'm looking for is something that is globally available and allows me to interact with my computer as if I'm using a hardware keyboard. I want to be able to issue inputs without restrictions (for example trigger global shortcuts) as if I'm a regular keyboard user.
>
> I've been looking into some options for doing what I am looking to do, and I was seeking some input from plasma developers to make sure what I'm attempting to do is actually going down the supported route. I don't want to build something that is actively considered misuse of wayland, or is looked at as a security concern.
>
> I see a few options:
>
> * Pretend to be a hardware keyboard via an emulated device such as using uinput - is this looked down upon since it essentially goes around Wayland? Would plasma considered blocking something like emulated devices in the future?
> * Ideally use something like zwp_virtual_keyboard_v1 but this does not seem to be supported by plasma. Is there any intention to support something like this in the future?
> * Use XDG RemoteDesktop Portal - would this be seen as misuse of the API?
>
> Ultimately my use case is I want a keyboard that sits on my desktop and allows me to input anything a regular hardware keyboard would be able to input.
>
> --
>   John Ramsden