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linux_gaming·Linux Gamingby0x90shell

Gamepad on-screen keyboard for Linux - looking for Wayland testers

Update: SDL3/Wayland branch merged to main, GH release bin updated along with AUR packages.

There's no good standalone controller-driven on-screen keyboard on Linux. Steam's keyboard requires Steam running. Other virtual keyboards (Onboard, Florence) need a mouse pointer or are dead projects. I wanted something that takes D-pad and stick input directly, like a console, but can be launched independently of specific games or platforms.

So I built one written in Go with SDL3 and native Wayland layer-shell support. It works as a daemon with a configurable controller combo to toggle show/hide. AUR packages ( gamepad-osk-git , gamepad-osk-bin are updated to v2.

If you're on Wayland with a gamepad, I'd appreciate testers. Bug reports and PRs welcome. Wayland testers still welcome - especially GNOME (falls back to standard window, no layer-shell). Bug reports and PRs welcome.

Features :

  • Full QWERTY with shortcuts row (undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, select all, Alt+Tab, media keys)
  • D-pad navigation with stick-driven mouse cursor
  • Modifier support (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Super, Caps) with visual status indicators
  • Button-hold key repeat for backspace, space, enter
  • Alt+Tab key for multiple Tab presses
  • Auto-reconnect on controller disconnect/timeout
  • Configurable button mapping, 60 themes, adjustable opacity
  • Sub-1% CPU idle, under 4% during active input
Gamepad on-screen keyboard for Linux - looking for Wayland testershttps://github.com/0x90shell/gamepad-oskOpen linkView original on piefed.social
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12 replies

Thaurin
lemmy.world

Have you already tested this on Steam Deck? That would be awesome.

15
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

Nope. Just on my Arch systems (XFCE w/ X11) & Void Linux w/ X11. I am planning to run through some manual tests in KDE Plasma which should be applicable to Steam Deck and CatchyOS, but I need to build a proper test env. Ive done simple tests in Sway and KDE with nested sessions, but those are just spot checks not full testing. I need to boot into real systems for full testing.

4
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

SDL3/Wayland branch merged to main, bins updated along with AUR packages. Works fine in KDE with some caveats (opacity doesn't work and I can't teleport your mouse cursor - these are Wayland limitations/security).

1
mrbigmouth502
piefed.zip

I've been wanting a better on-screen keyboard for my TV gaming box. The Steam on-screen keyboard gets cut off at the edges of the screen when I run KDE at 1.25x DPI scale.

Is there any chance that this would work as a Flatpak? The machine I want to use this on runs Bazzite, though it'd be helpful for running it on other distros too.

7
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

Doing so defies the Flatpak security model since the app needs raw evdev and uinput device access. Since Bazzite has a read-only root, you'll need to layer the runtime dependencies:

rpm-ostree install SDL3 SDL3_ttf

Then reboot. The udev rule for uinput access goes in /etc which is writable on Bazzite:

sudo cp gamepad-osk.udev /etc/udev/rules.d/80-gamepad-osk.rules  
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

After that you can build inside a distrobox and run it from ~/.local/bin. I think these will work to build the current branch, I'm not on Bazzite (Fedora):

distrobox create --name build --image fedora:41  
distrobox enter build  
sudo dnf install golang SDL3-devel SDL3_ttf-devel libX11-devel wayland-devel  
git clone -b sdl3-migration https://github.com/0x90shell/gamepad-osk.git  
cd gamepad-osk  
go build -o gamepad-osk .  
cp gamepad-osk ~/.local/bin/  
exit

Promptfont is optional (shows controller button icons on keys), but I recommend it. To install:

wget https://github.com/Shinmera/promptfont/raw/main/promptfont.ttf  
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts  
cp promptfont.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/  
fc-cache
5
9488fcea02a9reply
sh.itjust.works

Jesus christ... the developer of useful linux program getting downvoted for explaining things....

Lemmy is fulll of entitled chilren who think they are morally superior to redditors....

5
mrbigmouth502reply
piefed.zip

It's really undeserved, especially since the dev went out of their way to write a detailed install procedure for Bazzite. I just gave them an upvote on that comment, but I wish I gave them one sooner.

2
mrbigmouth502reply
piefed.zip

Is it theoretically possible for an on-screen keyboard to not need raw device access?

1
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

Yeah, if it only handles the display side and relies on an accessibility framework like AT-SPI or IBus for input injection. That's how Onboard and GNOME's built-in keyboard work. But those frameworks need a cooperative desktop environment and don't work consistently across compositors.

This tool needs raw device access because it does more than just display a keyboard:

  • Reads gamepad input directly from evdev (d-pad, sticks, buttons, triggers). Accessibility frameworks don't handle gamepad input, only keyboard/mouse.
  • Injects keyboard and mouse events via uinput. AT-SPI/IBus can inject keystrokes but not mouse movement or arbitrary key combos like Ctrl+Z.
  • Grabs the gamepad exclusively while visible so input doesn't bleed to the game. No framework exposes device grabbing.
  • Emulates a mouse cursor from analog stick input. Continuous analog-to-mouse translation isn't something accessibility buses are built for.

TL;DR
Raw evdev/uinput is what lets it work standalone on any compositor without depending on desktop-specific APIs. The trade-off is device permissions instead of accessibility bus access.

4
mrbigmouth502reply
piefed.zip

I see. I wonder, does any of this have issues on Wayland? I try to use it wherever I can for its security benefits, though I know it's not as flexible as X11 in some cases.

Also, I don't know where that downvote came from, but it wasn't me. I gave you an updoot to bring you back above 0.

1
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

No worries about the downvote. evdev and uinput are kernel interfaces, they work the same on Wayland and X11. The display side has native Wayland support via wlr-layer-shell (Sway, Hyprland, KDE Plasma). Steam does the same thing I'm doing for gamepad input - reads /dev/input/event* directly via SDL, creates virtual devices via uinput for remapping. Same kernel interfaces, same udev rules.

3
0x90shellreply
piefed.social

I pushed the Wayland branch to main and have an updated bin if you wanted to avoid building yourself, though you still need to follow my non-distrobox instructions to test.

2

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