OKBoard

eber42's picture
Submitted by eber42 on Sun, 2025/02/02 - 19:16
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OKBoard (a.k.a. Magic Keyboard) is a gesture based keyboard that allow single stroke typing. Usage is explained in this video. English, French and Dutch are supported without the need for additional packages, other language resources are available in separate packages, e.g. for Swedish (okb-lang-sv). It currently works on Jolla phone, Xperia X / XA2 / 10 / 10 plus. Larger phones (such as XA2 plus/ultra & Fxtec Pro1) may be supported in a later release.

Do not use other third party keyboards at the same time (unless they are just simple layouts for new languages).

Source code: http://git.tuxfamily.org/okboard/okb-engine.git/ and http://git.tuxfamily.org/okboard/okb-keyboard.git/. Instructions for adding new languages are included in README.md files (latin alphabet only at the moment).

If you get an error message about missing dependencies (dbus-python, patch ...) when installing, just run "pkcon refresh" as root and try again. Also some issues may be solved by uninstalling and reinstalling.

OKBoard tends to break for each new Sailfish release, so if possible, wait for other users reports before upgrading to a new OS version.

Screenshots: 

Category:

Keywords:

Application versions: 
AttachmentSizeDate
File okboard-full-0.6.34-1.aarch64.rpm10.51 MB29/09/2021 - 20:00
File okboard-full-0.6.34-1.armv7hl.rpm10.5 MB29/09/2021 - 20:00
File okboard-full-0.6.35-1.armv7hl.rpm10.5 MB18/09/2022 - 14:33
File okboard-full-0.6.35-1.aarch64.rpm10.51 MB18/09/2022 - 14:33
File okboard-full-0.6.37-1.aarch64.rpm10.51 MB05/02/2023 - 14:36
File okboard-full-0.6.37-1.armv7hl.rpm10.5 MB05/02/2023 - 14:36
File okboard-full-0.6.38-1.armv7hl.rpm10.5 MB02/02/2025 - 19:16
File okboard-full-0.6.38-1.aarch64.rpm10.51 MB02/02/2025 - 19:16
Changelog: 

0.6.38 : Support for SFOS 5 + minor bugfix

0.6.37 : Support for SFOS 4.5

0.6.35 : Disable Sailjail to allow admin app to start on SFOS 4.4

0.6.34: Fix for "Installation not complete" error

Comments

DragonLich's picture

DragonLich

Mon, 2020/04/06 - 10:00

May I help you with debugging of XA2 Ultra somehow?

rover's picture

rover

Tue, 2020/02/18 - 16:44

I'm an XA2 Plus user and happy to help test and provide feedback

vansid's picture

vansid

Sun, 2019/12/15 - 23:42

When typing long press accented characters (such as è) on Sailfish 3.2.1.19, the selection box is not drawn properly. Only an all-white box appears. The issue is resolved when OKboard is disabled.

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2019/12/16 - 20:35

That is funny, I can reproduce it on an Xperia XA2 but not on the Jolla phone, but that may be due to different themes (dark vs. white). Anyway, I'm adding this to the tentative end-of-year release.

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sat, 2019/12/21 - 16:38

An update would be a nice Christmas gift indeed! I can confirm on XA2 that this problem is there with a dark theme. Light theme is doing OK. Kind regards, Rob

pakman's picture

pakman

Fri, 2019/12/20 - 19:01

The problem can also be seen on the Xperia X, and only on dark ambiences. More discussion here: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1563481#post1563481

ferlanero's picture

ferlanero

Sat, 2019/11/23 - 15:44

With large screen devices coming to Sailfish (e.g Xperia 10 Plus), OKBoard doesn't work :( Could we get an update, please?

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2019/12/01 - 20:29

OK I've got the message. I am putting this request on the top of my roadmap, but I have to find a few rainy week-ends during the holiday season to find a proper solution, so a fix is probably at least a few weeks away. For now I think Xperia 10 should be easy but XA2 ultra & plus support would require substantial work.

ferlanero's picture

ferlanero

Thu, 2019/12/26 - 01:29

Good to know you are on it :) Adapting OKBoard to bigger screens like the Xperia 10 Plus it's a must to, I think, due to growing screen sizes in smartphones every year. Remember I can help you with anything debug you need with my 10 Plus. Thank you very much for your hard work!!

Brummkreisel's picture

Brummkreisel

Wed, 2019/08/07 - 21:52

Will there ever be other screen sizes supported like the XA2 e.g.?

rover's picture

rover

Thu, 2019/09/12 - 13:55

I'm keen to find out the answer to this as well.

I would be happy with the whole keyboard being shifted to the left or the right without adjusting the scale, that might even be easier for one handed use.

What can we do to get the keyboard enabled? I'm happy to take a look at the code if someone can point me in the direction of learning how to deploy and test.

Shervrar's picture

Shervrar

Mon, 2019/04/29 - 06:55

Works reasonably well. Two things though:

1) Android capitalization is off. I know this was mentioned before, but would it be possible to maybe default to all-lowercase when using an android app (or when no surrounding text information is available)?

2) After entering a word via swipe gesture, backspace backspaces twice. Example: "Car Dumpling" <Backspace> "Car" <Dumpling> "CarDumpling" <Backspace> "Ca". I hope this makes sense.

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2019/05/05 - 12:18

1) that is the default behaviour, but I have just discovered there is now some surrounding text information available while using Android apps, which may trigger the problem you see. I'll try to have a fix for this issue.

2) I can not reproduce this (or I have not understood your description), maybe you could post a video & proper context info (device, OS, app used & okboard version)

Shervrar's picture

Shervrar

Tue, 2019/05/07 - 03:06

1) Thanks!

2) Well I just tried again and it didn't do it. Maybe I had something else intefearing with it before, or the OS update fixed it? Either way the problem is gone now. I'll make sure to post a video should it happen again.

3) A different question, do you think it would be possible to show word suggestions even when not swiping?

Shervrar's picture

Shervrar

Tue, 2019/05/07 - 05:37

2) Okay, it started doing it again. Video is here:

https://send.firefox.com/download/71426c4ea592ee4d/#PHgUuVfWvg_2e4mIFtzP8w

 

eber42's picture

eber42

Tue, 2019/05/07 - 09:27

You are using an Android application which is not well supported by the current version. Try with a native app and tell me if you can reproduce this issue.

As stated above, context information is now provided by the keyboard framework when using android apps, but it provides inaccurate values that lead to the bugs you have described, and it is not handled by current okboard version because I discovered this change two days ago. I'll try to add a workaround in the next release.

Shervrar's picture

Shervrar

Wed, 2019/05/08 - 01:38

>You are using an android application

Do you mean the video? That is just the Sailfish OS browser, not an android app.

eber42's picture

eber42

Thu, 2019/05/09 - 16:55

Oops, thanks for clarification, now this makes more sense.

There is still no context information available in browser text input areas. This issue is in my backlog but i'm not sure it can be improved that much.

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sun, 2019/04/28 - 21:02

Hi eber42,

Thanks for repairing the candidates section. Working fine again while swiping. But... It seems to me that when typing the candidates section stays empty. Is that a side effect from your changes?

Cheers, Rob

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2019/05/05 - 11:31

Candidates are shown only after a "swipe" to allow correcting a bad guess. At any other time the standard Jolla keyboard behaviour is supposed to stay unchanged (i.e. it should display XT9 next word prediction or completion). Maybe you could post a video to make sure I understand the issue ?

svex87's picture

svex87

Tue, 2019/04/23 - 17:19

I have an issue using Okboard in Android Apps like Whatsapp (German language pack) In Android Apps okboards adds two blank space after the first word and than the next word starts with a capitale letter.

eber42's picture

eber42

Wed, 2019/04/24 - 08:46

I know it is really annoying, but I do not know how to solve this issue at the moment: the Sailfish keyboard framework does not provide surrounding text information for Android applications, so this prevent autospacing from working properly. Any help or suggestion welcome.

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2019/05/05 - 11:57

I have just checked and this is not true anymore (I do not know when it has changed), so I will check if it is possible to add proper support for Android apps.

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Mon, 2019/04/22 - 20:08

Great to have this new update so fast, thanks!

murfik's picture

murfik

Mon, 2019/04/22 - 18:26

Thanks for answer! Great keyboard, but need support other langs for 'must have' status

murfik's picture

murfik

Mon, 2019/04/22 - 15:49

how to add russian lang?

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2019/04/22 - 16:42

Only languages with latin alphabet are supported at the moment. There are a lot of changes required to support other alphabets so it will probably not be implemented soon

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sun, 2019/04/14 - 13:44

For other languages like Finnish: there are instructions available, how to compile language files.

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sun, 2019/04/14 - 13:40

It is so great to have OKboard working again, thanks! The only thing is that the suggested words have changed. No longer words that may have been meant, based on the spelling variations of the swipe. Now it seems to predict the next word.

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2019/04/14 - 17:40

Oops, that is really a bug, I'll try to fix this soon

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