Matthew Allum 2002 Matthew Allum mallum@handhelds.org

Xkbd is a small highly configurable 'virtual' on-screen keyboard for X11. It is designed primarily for use on a PDA, but will hopefully be of use on other devices where a physical keyboard is not present. Xkbd uses no widget set and is based purely on xlib. It also optionally uses the xft library for anti aliased fonts.

Xkbd uses autoconf, so building it should be straightforward: $./configure $make # This next step might require root access $make install See the INSTALL file for (standard) gory details regarding autoconf. Configure currently supports the following options; --enable-debug configure for a debug build --enable-xft configure to use XFT library for anti-aliased fonts. Make also has an 'ipkg' target for building shiny ipkgs. A prebuilt ipkg is included in the familiar linux distributions unstable feed.

On launch xkbd will attempt to open its configuration file from /etc/xkbdrc . xkbd understands the following command switches; -display <display> Selects the display for xkbd to appear on. -geometry <geometry> Provide xkbd with a position and dimension parameters. For example 320x100+50+50 will make a 320x100 pixel keyboard 50 pixels from the side and top of your display. NOTE: Its useful to use this option in overide redirect mode ( see below ) as xkbd by default will alway take up the smallest space possible for its current configuration, unless told differently by this option or the window manager. -fa <font name>[-<point size> ] Select the xft AA font for xkbd. Overrides whatever was defined in xkbdrc. -fn <font name> Select the X11 font for xkbd. Like -fa also overrides. -k <config file> Select an alternate keyboard definition file other than the default /etc/xkbdrc. -v Display the version. -h Display a breif help message.

The actual 'keyboard' xkbd uses is defined in a configuration file. The defualt config file is /etc/xkbdrc, an alternate can be specified with the -k switch on startup. A configuration file for xkbd is split into 'tagged' sections; A global section mainly for the keyboards overall appearance , And row sections containing key definitions which defined the actual keys. See /etc/xkbdrc for an example. The section should appear first in the file and can contain the following key/value pairs ( seperated by a space ) ; Key Value Description render xft|normal Set mode to 'xft' if you want to use anti aliased fonts. font font definition Defines the font used for the keyboard. For an xft font, specify the point size like -. Default font is fixed / mono. col color def Defines the color of keyboard background. Defaults to white. This as with all color definitions can be either an RGB colon seperated list of an X color name. Defaults to white. down_col color Defines the color of a held down active key. Defaults to black. txt_col color Defines the color of the keyboard key text. Defaults to black. border_col color Defines the color of the keys border. Defaults to black. width|height pixel count Defines the keyboards width or height in pixels. Is overridden by the -geometry switch. Defaults to the smallest possible size for the defined keyboard. button_style rounded|plain|square Sets the basic button visual 'style. Can be rounded ( default ), square or plain. After the <global></global> definition, there then follows one of more <row> sections which contain the definitions for each on that row. The Rows go from top to and bottom and the keys left to right. Each row should just contain definitions, there are no key / value definitions presently for rows. Each key has 3 'states', a default state, a shifted state and a modded state. Each state contains different key text and keysyms ( what is actually sent to the focused window when a key is pressed ) Each <key> section can contain the following key / value pairs. default Defines the text which is displayed on a key when shift or a modifier ( ie alt ) is not pressed. default_ks Defines the actual keysym value that is sent by xkbd to the active window when the key is pressed. The keysym is the actual value thats sent to to active window. Keysyms are listed in /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h The is a special keysym '!Mod' which specifies the button is a 'special' modifier button to access a 2nd alternate keysym for the key - see the mod section below. shift Defines the text which is diplayed on a key when a shift or CAPS key is held down. If not set the key will show the default text when shift is pressed. shift_ks Defines the keysym sent when shift or caps is held down. mod Defines a second alternative text string to be displayed. The mod option exists to make it easy to define smaller keyboards with more options per key. mod_ks The keysym to be sent when the 'mod' button is pressed. img Defines an xpm to be displayed on a key. With this set, no text will be displayed and the img currently is the same across of keyboard states. bg Defines the background color of a key, overiding what was set in . fg Defines the foreground color ( ie text ) of a key, overiding what was set in . slide_up_ks Defines the keysym to be sent when a key is pressed, but the pointer is slid up before being released ( a 'slide' ). Other slide directions can also be defined ( see below ). defaults to the shifted keysym slide_down_ks defaults to sending a CTRL with the keysym slide_left_ks defaults to None. slide_right_ks defaults to None. width Forces the minimum width of a key to be this set value in pixels. Useful specifying a more exact layout. height Forces the minimum height of a key to be this set value in pixels. NOTE: If a key contains no keysym definitions its assumed to be an empty spacer.

There could be one of two things causing this; xmodmap

monolaunch provides this. Run monolaunch like this; monolaunch /usr/share/xkbd/img/kbd.xpm xkbd Adding the '-k' switch to monolaunch will cause xkbd to completely disappear rather than minimise to a bar.

Xkbd is free software released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, (GPL). You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. Xkbd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Xkbd is written by Matthew Allum. It uses the libvirtkeys lib by. Be sure to check out other exciting software by me including; xkbd - a xlib virtual on-screen keyboard, pikpak - a python gtk front end to ipkg, gtksolo - a gtk module which turns held down left clicks into right clicks on gtk apps and jabberpy - a Python library for the Jabber instant messaging protocol. Xkbd is copyright Matthew Allum 2002.