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

gaelic's picture

gaelic

Tue, 2021/09/28 - 07:56

Perfect, now aarch64 is usable :)

D_R's picture

D_R

Tue, 2021/09/28 - 00:29

Cool, it's working again. Thank you for this Update and your effort.

OhneZ's picture

OhneZ

Mon, 2021/09/27 - 22:10

I was able to install the 64 bit version on the Pinephone. On the XA2 the 32 bit version says installation incomplete ?both OS are 4.2.0.21
what am I doing wrong ?

eber42's picture

eber42

Tue, 2021/09/28 - 09:43

I can confirm it works at least on one 4.2 XA2 I own.

Can you be more specific on how to reproduce the issue, the exact symptoms / error messages, etc. because I can not guess with so little information.

OhneZ's picture

OhneZ

Tue, 2021/09/28 - 21:58

before upgrading to 4.2.0.24 I removed Okboard.
But not the German language pack. After the upgrade I reinstalled as it was available. the storeman says successfully installed. But when I open okBoard a red warning message "Installation not complete" appears immediately.Please reinstall. or report the error message install.err.Please install again. or report the error message install.err.

 

I'm beginning to suspect that something went wrong with the upgrade to 4.2.0.21

 

eber42's picture

eber42

Wed, 2021/09/29 - 09:31

Please, could you just send me the file as described in the displayed error message ?

OhneZ's picture

OhneZ

Wed, 2021/09/29 - 17:56

The fault was mine. During the upgrade to 4.2 I uninstalled OKboard. It must have broken something then. Therefore, I had the XA2 completely reflashed. and now the Okboard runs as it should. Unfortunately, I have now of course the error message no longer available.

D_R's picture

D_R

Wed, 2021/09/22 - 23:38

Are there any news regarding SFOS 4.2 ?

teleshoes's picture

teleshoes

Tue, 2021/09/28 - 00:29

just tested new version on SFOS 4.2 on Xperia X Compact. works great!

eber42's picture

eber42

Thu, 2021/09/23 - 17:07

Work is still in progress. There are a few issues to fix. It will take at least a few days

D_R's picture

D_R

Fri, 2021/09/24 - 00:06

Thank you for your feedback.

rodski9's picture

rodski9

Wed, 2021/09/08 - 09:21

Do you know if it will work at all on a XA2 plus? Should I try?

eber42's picture

eber42

Wed, 2021/09/08 - 19:38

Not at the moment. The only development device I own that I could use to implement larger keyboard support shows some strange performance issues I do not understand, so at the moment this is on hold.

OhneZ's picture

OhneZ

Wed, 2021/10/13 - 14:55

The same problems occur with Pinephone. very delayed input. some words are simply forgotten.

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sun, 2021/08/15 - 12:55

Hi eber42, I am tempted to switch from XA2 to 10ii, but OKboard is not available on aarch64. Do you intend to create it?

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2021/08/16 - 10:14

All future OKBoard releases will include an aarch64 build & xperia 10ii support. I'll issue the next one when SFOS 4.2 ships in order to add any related fix and limit the number of successive releases. In the meantime, if you need an unofficial testing RPM just email me.

 

kirbylife_'s picture

kirbylife_

Sun, 2021/06/06 - 04:27

Can you add please an option to do more smaller the keyboard? the original design seems a little high to me.

Thanks.

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2021/06/06 - 16:26

I can not change keyboard size because I am using Sailfish keyboard files, so any modification becomes a nightmare when it has to be maintained over new Sailfish releases.

_David_'s picture

_David_

Sat, 2021/06/05 - 22:09

Even 0.6.26 worked on 4.1 here.  No Android problems found with either.

I'm living in France now and it would be nice to be able to switch to the French dictionary... with a separate user dictionary but not an AZERTY keyboard!.  Is that possible?

What's the structure of the user dictionary?  It would be nice to be able to enter a custom word from the Settings UI.

eber42's picture

eber42

Sun, 2021/06/06 - 16:26

Thanks for your feedback. Maybe I overreacted when I issued a new release for SFOS 4.1. Version 0.6.27 is safe anyway.

Using a different language for keyboard and dictionary is not implemented. It should be doable but raises some usability issues: e.g. how do to find characters with accents if you use a different keyboard ? I am adding it to the roadmap, but with low priority due to small request count.

The user dictionary is a plain text file (~/.local/share/okboard/<language>-user.txt), but you can just type a new word with the keys and after a few minutes you should be able to "swipe" it. It is not designed to handle a lot of words (maybe a few hundreds max).

Edit: oops, removed answer to other post

damoleon's picture

damoleon

Fri, 2021/05/21 - 14:01

EDIT: nevermind , I did a factory reset, couldn't wait

I have a black scrren  when I open a sms message e.g or try to search in a browser since I uninstalled Okboard ? I restored my phone to a previous date but the issue persists. How can I fix this ?

I tried to install it again and uninstall it but the issue persists

I'm on Kvarken 4.1.0 and installed okboard-full-0.6.26-1.armv7hl.rpm

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2021/05/24 - 18:12

Just to be clear, only version 0.6.27 can run with SFOS 4.1.0

rob_k's picture

rob_k

Sun, 2021/05/16 - 08:51

Version 0.6.27 did not go well with SFOS 4.0 Koli, went back to v26. Numeric keyboard was shown together with the normal keyboard, really strange. Will try again on 4.1. Thanks!

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2021/05/24 - 18:11

This should not have happened. But unfortunately I have got no more 4.0 device to test, and as it is common, untested software does not work as intended. What exact SFOS version are you using ?

Can other users report success or failure with SFOS 4.0 ?

If the issue is confirmed I will provide with a version with improved logging for troubleshooting

murfik's picture

murfik

Thu, 2021/05/13 - 16:06

What about support russian lang?

eber42's picture

eber42

Mon, 2021/05/24 - 18:29

 It is probably doable, but requires a lot of work, so it is clearly not in the short-term roadmap

PawelSpoon's picture

PawelSpoon

Sat, 2021/04/03 - 08:59

Thank you for your work! What would i need to change to get support for vollaphone ?

nealb's picture

nealb

Wed, 2021/03/03 - 18:44

Excellent work. Thank you.

martinbook85's picture

martinbook85

Tue, 2021/02/23 - 07:36

Is there any way that I can help in getting this app to larger screens? Like testing? I know that time is limited, so no rush. Would just love to have this feature on my phone.

vansid's picture

vansid

Mon, 2021/02/22 - 21:39

I initially had the black screen problem after upgrading from 3.4 to 4.0.1. Uninstalling and reinstalling fixed the issue.

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