OKBoard
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:
Application versions:
| Attachment | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|
 okboard-full-0.6.34-1.aarch64.rpm | 10.51 MB | 29/09/2021 - 20:00 |
| okboard-full-0.6.34-1.armv7hl.rpm | 10.5 MB | 29/09/2021 - 20:00 |
| okboard-full-0.6.35-1.armv7hl.rpm | 10.5 MB | 18/09/2022 - 14:33 |
| okboard-full-0.6.35-1.aarch64.rpm | 10.51 MB | 18/09/2022 - 14:33 |
| okboard-full-0.6.37-1.aarch64.rpm | 10.51 MB | 05/02/2023 - 14:36 |
| okboard-full-0.6.37-1.armv7hl.rpm | 10.5 MB | 05/02/2023 - 14:36 |
| okboard-full-0.6.38-1.armv7hl.rpm | 10.5 MB | 02/02/2025 - 19:16 |
| okboard-full-0.6.38-1.aarch64.rpm | 10.51 MB | 02/02/2025 - 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
eber42
Fri, 2021/02/19 - 09:22
Permalink
What happens if you uninstall OKBoard and then reinstall it again ?
PawelSpoon
Tue, 2021/02/09 - 10:29
Permalink
Works on 4.0 / xperia 10. Thanks !
aviarus
Thu, 2021/02/04 - 21:26
Permalink
Seems to be incompatible with sfos 4 yet. Enabled it gives a black screen
eber42
Fri, 2021/02/05 - 11:00
Permalink
Thanks for the report. I'll try to find a fix before the end of early access. At the moment my phone does not show the upgrade yet (I know I can force install it if needed). I may also have some issues because all my test devices are Jolla1 phones that will not get the upgrade (as far as I understand)
campeon
Fri, 2021/01/29 - 02:35
Permalink
Hi. Thanks a lot for your work. It's great and amazing. I do have a question... I don't know why, but after every word, it does not include a space..... In android apps. Thanks
eber42
Fri, 2021/02/05 - 11:02
Permalink
This is a known issue. When using an Android app, the keyboard framework does not provide the value of the text surrounding the cursor. OKBoard uses this information to decide when to add spaces. I have never found better solution. In the worst case it would require modification to the android emulation packages which is closed source.
martinbook85
Tue, 2021/01/19 - 15:04
Permalink
Really looking forward to this working on XA2 Ultra! One of the features I miss the most on Sailfish.
rover
Tue, 2020/12/29 - 13:02
Permalink
Hi @eber42, any news on xa2 plus/ultra support? Still happy to help test if required.
eber42
Fri, 2021/02/05 - 11:05
Permalink
Hi, I do no own large enough devices to debug the app and generate test cases so I am a bit stuck at the moment. I was expecting to use a Pro 1 which is roughly the same size as the XA2 plus but okboard has performance issue that prevent normal usage and I have not had time to investigate these issues
linuxsquad
Tue, 2020/12/22 - 00:53
Permalink
Hi,
when using on WhatsApp installed on Sailfish OS, keyboard eventually freezes. Works fine with native Saildish apps.
Thanks
OB
eber42
Fri, 2020/12/25 - 13:02
Permalink
Please provide a procedure to reproduce the issue consistently, and if possible not involving Whatsapp (as I do not have an account). If I can not reproduce it, I will not be able to fix it. Thanks
freerunner
Wed, 2020/10/21 - 17:39
Permalink
Works again on 3.4. Thank you!
PawelSpoon
Tue, 2020/10/20 - 19:38
Permalink
Works now ! Beer is comming. ups where is your paypal button ?
PawelSpoon
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 20:38
Permalink
Thank you very much !
i am on xperia 10. Now after uninstall install, i can see the keyboard, but the rest of screen goes still black.
with the previous version: the whole page went black, now only the non-keyboard part.
ferlanero
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 13:57
Permalink
[UPDATE] You need to unistall and install again to OKBoard works correctly
ferlanero
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 13:48
Permalink
Same here on Sony Xperia XA2 on Sailfish 3.4. Still not working: black screen when keyboard expands
inta
Tue, 2020/09/29 - 19:53
Permalink
Great app for sure. Sadly it does no longer work correctly with SFOS 3.4, the screen is black as long as the keyboard is opened. Transparent overlays seem to be a problem there.
eber42
Wed, 2020/10/14 - 19:57
Permalink
Thank you for the report. OKboard is an ugly hack based on Jolla keyboard (that I can not fork due to license) because there are no proper open source keyboard (I have not checked this recently though ...), so it is likely to break for each SFOS release. Thankfully we have early adopter release, so this issue will probably be fixed before 3.4 hits the general public
Edit 10/14: It seems I am late, release next weekend
skyjumper
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 13:25
Permalink
Unfortunately the same issue for me on J1 - black screen.
eber42
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 14:00
Permalink
Works for me on 2 different jolla phones. Try to uninstall and reinstall (really). I am interested in other user reports (working or not).
skyjumper
Mon, 2020/10/19 - 14:31
Permalink
Yep, unistalling and reinstalling worked for me. Thanks!!
PawelSpoon
Sun, 2020/10/18 - 23:08
Permalink
Hi
this time the issues seems worse as the whole page turns black, but the merge to fix phonehook seems not too bad:
https://github.com/omnight/phonehook/commit/be6481e96a4af8ef34cb14f4228a...
beside updated translations like 5 lines :)
ferlanero
Thu, 2020/10/15 - 17:14
Permalink
Release date are great news. Lots of users are missing this awesome swipe-like keyboard. One of the best predictive keyboards out there indeed!! Thanks!!
nshiell
Tue, 2020/09/29 - 01:10
Permalink
This is a great app
DragonLich
Mon, 2020/04/06 - 09:59
Permalink
Looking forward for the XA2 Ultra support. It would be pretty valuable there. And sorry, I did sent a logs by mail before reading that XA2 Ultra is not supported.
Thanks for making this keyboard!
vansid
Wed, 2020/01/15 - 05:41
Permalink
This keyboard is one of best kept secrets in Sailfish. Honestly, it works better than Apple's implementation in iOS and it's easily as good as Swype.
Historyscholar
Sat, 2020/01/04 - 18:11
Permalink
Do you consider Chinese?
eber42
Sun, 2020/01/05 - 14:51
Permalink
I don't know Chinese (except 你好), so it is not planned currently (I would not even know how to do it)
Kabouik
Thu, 2020/01/02 - 11:44
Permalink
It does not work on the F(x)tec Pro1, says "Screen size not supported" above the vkb when OKBoard is enabled. Would it be a lot of work to fix it? Its resolution is 2160x1080.
eber42
Sat, 2020/01/04 - 14:26
Permalink
At the moment OKBoard does not support wider phones such as Pro1 or XA2 plus/ultra because I do not own such devices. Supporting larger phone is not just a scaling issue as strokes show different features depending on the size so new sizes need specific work to support & test.
Good news: I have ordered a Pro1, so expect some improvement in this area (if the device is finally delivered)
Pages