How to install Soft Keyboard

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This installation tutorial uses "2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie" version for testing. If use wheezy or earlier image, then the step5 and step6 have different file paths, please refer to the virtual-keyboard official installation tutorial for specification.

Official reference address http://ozzmaker.com/virtual-keyboard-for-the-raspberry-pi/

1. Install the necessary files

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libfakekey-dev libpng-dev libxft-dev autoconf libtool

2.Install the matchbox-keyboard

git clone https://github.com/mwilliams03/matchbox-keyboard.git
cd matchbox-keyboard
./autogen.sh

(Note: "./ autogen.sh" execution takes a few minutes, and would show as follows after running correctly; if it doesn’t show as follows, then need to check to see if there are error Popup Window prompt)

Continue:

sudo make
sudo make install

3. Install the shared data library for matchbox-keyboard

sudo apt-get install libmatchbox1

As following:

4. Create a virtual keyboard startup script

sudo nano /usr/bin/toggle-matchbox-keyboard.sh

Paste the following, press Ctrl + X and Y, to save then exit

#!/bin/bash
#This script toggle the virtual keyboard
PID=`pidof matchbox-keyboard`
if [ ! -e $PID ]; then
killall matchbox-keyboard
else
matchbox-keyboard -s 50 extended&
fi

Add executable permission for the script above

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/toggle-matchbox-keyboard.sh

5. Add script above to Start menu {{code|1= sudo nano /usr/share/applications/toggle-matchbox-keyboard.desktop

Paste the following content, press Ctrl + X and Y, to save then exit

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Toggle Matchbox Keyboard
Comment=Toggle Matchbox Keyboard
Exec=toggle-matchbox-keyboard.sh
Type=Application
Icon=matchbox-keyboard.png
Categories=Panel;Utility;MB
X-MB-INPUT-MECHANSIM=True

6. Create an icon on the taskbar (Note that in this step, must be "pi" user privileges, if you use administrator privileges, will not find the file)

nano ~/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-pi/panels/panel

7. Find the resembles similar to the following command (default content may be different in different Raspberry Pi versions)

Plugin {
type=launchbar
Config {
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/applications/lxde-x-www-browser.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/raspi-ui-overrides/applications/pcmanfm.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/raspi-ui-overrides/applications/lxterminal.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/applications/wolfram-mathematica.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/applications/wolfram-language.desktop
    }
  }
}

Add the following code to add an icon item

Button {
          id=toggle-matchbox-keyboard.desktop
         }

After modifying, would show as below:

8. After modifying, run the following command and re-start the system; you will see a virtual keyboard icon in taskbar on the screen normally.

sudo reboot

P.S. Log into via SSH to see how to change the size of the virtual keyboard

DISPLAY=:0.0 matchbox-keyboard -s 50 extended
DISPLAY=:0.0 matchbox-keyboard -s 100 extended