switching back to the matchbox keyboard in openmoko

Posted on February 13, 2008
Filed Under openmoko, telephony |

i just noticed that the default devel image uses the “multitap-pad” keyboard instead of the matchbox keyboard i’ve grown accustomed to.

i’m sure the multitap-pad keyboard is great for some people but i don’t like it. i can’t figure out how to enter several keys that i can’t do without, particularly “/”.

here’s how to switch back to the matchbox keyboard.

(disclaimer - i’m new to openmoko & openembedded. i probably don’t know what i’m doing. it seems to work for me, though)

option 1: update a running image

this provides immediate gratification by switching in a running image without having to go through the image building & flashing process. it requires a network connection with access to an ipkg repository. the downside is that you’ll need to repeat these steps if you reflash your neo.

run the following as root from the neo1973, preferably via ssh:

   ipkg update
   ipkg install matchbox-keyboard-applet
   ipkg install matchbox-keyboard-inputmethod
   ipkg install matchbox-keyboard-im
   killall multitap-pad
   ipkg remove -force-depends multitap-pad
   /etc/init.d/xserver-nodm restart

you’ll see the x server restart on the neo then if everything works you’ll have the matchbox keyboard applet icon in the top bar just to the right of center.

option 2: build your own image with the matchbox keyboard enabled

if you’re not already building your own images this will take much longer - like a day or two.

first setup the openmoko build environment. i suggest using the MokoMakefile.

if you haven’t already you’ll need to create a local overlay. copy task-openmoko-base.bb to your overlay:

   mkdir -p local/packages/tasks
   cp openembedded/packages/tasks/task-openmoko-base.bb \
      local/packages/tasks/

then modify local/packages/tasks/task-openmoko-base.bb, uncomment the following lines:

   #  matchbox-keyboard-inputmethod \
   #  matchbox-keyboard-im \
   #  matchbox-keyboard-applet \

and comment out this line:

   multitap-pad \

next, increment the “PR” line near the top of the file so bitbake will rebuild the package.

now you should be ready to rebuild the image with “make openmoko-devel-image”. you can flash your new image to your neo with “make flash-neo-local” or whichever way you prefer.

2008-02-15 update:

it appears that when i was looking for instructions to switch the keyboard back i missed this:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.distro/220

erin yueh sent similar instructions for switching the keyboard the day before i worked through it. would have saved me a couple of hours if i had googled a bit more. oh well. at least i was on the right track.

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