virtual-keyboard

I have realized I need some sort of virtual keyboard so that I can type different alphabets faster with UK keyboard layout.

I have been inspired by this website in my trilingual language journey.

Dependencies

• Python (>=3.13) download here
• GTK (>=4) download here
• Sarabun font download here

Run with python

uv sync
python ./keyboard.py

Or roll your own binary

uv sync --all-extras --dev
uv run pyinstaller keyboard.spec
./dist/keyboard

Linux Binaries

Run the command below after understanding what it does

VERSION="1.0.1" PYVERSION="3.12.8" GLIBVERSION="2.39"; curl -L "https://github.com/mrwormhole/virtual-keyboard/releases/download/v${VERSION}/virtual-keyboard-py${PYVERSION}-glib${GLIBVERSION}-x86_64" -o virtual-keyboard-test && sudo mv virtual-keyboard-test /usr/local/bin/ && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/virtual-keyboard-test && sudo curl -o /usr/share/applications/virtual-keyboard-test.desktop "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mrwormhole/virtual-keyboard/main/virtual-keyboard.desktop

Please set the VERSION, PYVERSION and GLIBVERSION above, it will grab the binary from releases for you then rename it to virtual-keyboard and move to /usr/local/bin

Then will put the virtual-keyboard.desktop in /usr/share/applications and copy the contents of this desktop file

FAQs

• Why is there an error message saying GskMessage - Failed to realize renderer of type 'GskGLRenderer' for surface 'GdkWaylandToplevel': Failed to create EGL display?

Just do GSK_RENDERER=cairo ./binary if you got the binary from the releases, you won't have this message if you build the binary manually on your machine.

• Do you plan to add more languages?

We can consider as long as we don't break existing languages, I will not support chinese or japanese due to the complexity it brings.

• Do you plan to add support for Windows or Macos?

Absolutely no for Macos, maybe for Windows. On windows, you can still run the binary through WSL(windows subsystem for linux). I have tested locally with WSL, it works on Windows with WSL but windows support and CI are gonna cost me time/money so I am not willing to put time/money for it for now.

• Why GTK?

I use GNOME so I wanted to feel the native experience.

• Will you support GTK3?

No, please use up-to-date software.

References

• PyGObject Docs