Database Users

Question about Wizard keyboard

Does it has ESC key ?
I hate ppc "virtual" keyboard (default, RESCO, ...) because they cant send ESC key. This is important when you are using "vi" on PocketPutty application.
Or anyone know any virtual keyboard that has ESC key ?
Thanks

From the pictures and the I-mate K-JAM manual it doesnt appear to. Stop using VI, its terrible ;p

no it does not have a esc key

dvoraksip in the SDK does send escape keys (most complete keyboard I've seen, sends ctrl, alt, win key, has backspace and delete etc). But it helps if you can type using dvorak!
You could write a program to send custom keystrokes. I wrote a program once upon a time to send any keycode to current app, and this could be assigned to a hardware key etc. But it's a bit of a waste of a hardware key.
V

Escape key?
Maybe, but I am not sure about Escape key defined in Unicode:
http://ae.inc.ru/
AEKMap - AE Keyboard Mapper for Windows Mobile
J.

thereaperman said:
no it does not have a esc key
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nor a CTRL key. So a bit limited for terminal applications then!
You can get ^ and [ by using the Sym modifier on the Space key on H and K.
Dunno if that can be persuaded to send the CTRL-[ escape sequence though.

Copy/Paste shorcut from external keyboard ?

How do you do copy/paste while typing on the external Keyboard of the HTC Tytn ?
On the Softward keyboard included in WM5, you have 'Ctrl' so you can simply do a copy/paste by typing Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V. But from the external keyboard, how do you do a copy/paste ?

Use PQz
V

I tried PQzII, but it seems to be very buggy: because of it the capital shift does not work properly anymore and sometimes when I press on the space bar to change a 'e' to a 'é' I just can't. An other thing is that I can not, use the button of Pocket Music when PQzII is used (when I quit PQzII I can use the hardware button again).
Are there any other way to have a copy/paste from the external keyboard?

Can some1 confirm PQzII can do copy paste? I tried but did not work, I set WIN as ctrl, then try in notepad with WIN+C then WIN+V but nothing happend.

No CTRL key option on HD2?

Just got my HD2 and fired up Putty to check it all works and realised there's no CTRL key on the included keyboard?
Any workarounds?

Biffy said:
Just got my HD2 and fired up Putty to check it all works and realised there's no CTRL key on the included keyboard?
Any workarounds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install other keyboards

Which though? I've tried searching but can't see an obvious candidate. Finger keyboard doesn't seem to have one.

You might give MIDPSSH a shot. Java based SSH client. It's a bit finicky, but once you get used to it, you have all special keys available quickly.
Key is to open the Menu once you are connected and have the prompt, then go to menu>type to type right on the prompt (or hit INPUT and type in a new screen, not sure why it was designed like that). There are also all special keys there for tapping (when using the MENU). if the text is too small, go to SETTINGS and change the font size from "tiny" to "device".
Link: http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/

PC-like keyboard mapping for hardware USB keyboards

WARNING: This is a work in progress, but I want to get my partially working config out there for someone like me who desperately wants this to work.
Edit 1: In retrospect, titling it "better keyboard support" was a bad idea, this has nothing to do with the "betterkeyboard" app.
I purchased the apad/gpad case with the integrated USB keyboard from witglobal here:
http://witglobal.com/goods-1846-10+inch+Apad+keypad++Leather+Case+for+10inch+flytouch+ZT-180+X10+A8+infotmic+Tablet+PC+-+Free+Shipping.html
However, there are issues with the control and escape keys, particularly in connectbot. Since I got the keyboard so I could connect to Linux machines, missing those two keys is pretty ugly. I know you can tap the touchscreen to get ctrl and esc, but that's really slow, I'd like to use the hard key.
So far, I have discovered that there are several things getting in the way of the key working. First is the keyboard mapping files. There are no native key mapping for 'esc' and the default key mapping for the 'esc' key is "BACK". This is fine for many uses, but not for mine. Secondly, it looks like there is a very small set of "custom" keys available in the keymappings.h file. Since there are no "USER1" etc keys, it will take a rebuild of the keyboard code with added entries to make it work better.
This is an attempt to fix control and esc functionality with a USB keyboard. It consists of a kcm file and a kl file to replace the current ones. I am doing my work on VEGAn beta5, but I suspect any ROM will benefit from these files.
To install these files, do the following:
MAKE BACKUP
adb pull /system/usr/keychars/usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin.orig
adb pull /system/usr/keylayout/usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl.orig
Install mod
adb remount
adb push usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin /system/usr/keychars
adb push usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl /system/usr/keylayout
Unplug and replug your USB keyboard
Once this is done, the following changes are made:
Ctrl is mapped to DPAD_CENTER
Esc is mapped to DPAD_CENTER
To use it, go to connectbot, log in, and hit esc or ctrl once for ctrl, and hit esc or ctrl 2x for escape.
Current Issues:
Shift , generates a ;, not a < in Connectbot, but works correctly in other places
Shift . generates a :, not a > in Connectbot, but works correctly in other places
Insert does not work
Del generates a backspace
] and } keys generate the character + a beep

howdy
I'm a long time betterkeyboard user too. So this mod allows a USB keyboard to use the hardware spell checking option like I can on my droid one?
you might want to send a note to the devs about inccluding this by default. They added the ability to change key height pretty quickly when a few folk sasked.
Sent from my GTablet using Tapatalk

sharpfork said:
howdy
I'm a long time betterkeyboard user too. So this mod allows a USB keyboard to use the hardware spell checking option like I can on my droid one?
you might want to send a note to the devs about inccluding this by default. They added the ability to change key height pretty quickly when a few folk sasked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is to enable escape and control keys in Connectbot (and possibly others eventually). If you don't use connectbot or a terminal emulator on the gtab, it most likely will be useless to you.
The intent, eventually, is to make a hardware USB keyboard work identically to how it works on a PC (control/alt/esc/etc send the correct keycodes)

Thanks, this helps a lot
As an Emacs user, not having ESC doesn't bother me much.
Ctrl key now works, but only in a way that you tap it once than tap another key, instead of conventional way of pressing a key while ctrl key is pressed.
Is there anyway to fix that? Thank you.

Thanks for doing this work, I too was upset that after buying a USB keyboard it was useless for SSH. Have you made any progress on the issues listed at the end of your post since posting this in Jan? Hope you found a solution and could share it with us!

[TUT] (Re)Mapping your USB keyboard

Most of you have a regular PC keyboard with a lot of unusable keys (win, f1-f12, pause, etc.) and here is how you can map those keys, so you can make the most of your keyboard. You can even remap the regular keys to change the layout of your keyboard if you like.
What you need to have:
1. An USB keyboard
2. Root access
3. Any root explorer that can mount /system as rw
4. Any terminal emulator
5. KeyEvent Display app found in the market
What you need to do:
1. Start the terminal emulator and type 'lsusb'. Connect the keyboard and type it again. Notice the device that is added (the keyboard) and write doen the two hex numbers (vendor id and product id).
2. Open the root explorer, go to /system/usr/keylayout/ and copy 'Generic.kl' to your /sdcard/ (or any location that is easy to find and edit the file). Rename the copied file to 'Vendor_xxxx_Product_xxxx.kl' replacing the xxxx with your vendor and product ids from the previous step.
3. Open the .kl file with any text editor and begin (re)mapping the keys. The file format is pretty straightforward:
key x CMD [OPT]
You need to know the scancode of the key you want mapped (x) and the command you want to execute when that key is pressed (CMD). The third parameter is optional and is useful if you want the action performed while the tab is sleeping (for example if you want to be able to wake it up).
4. To get the scancodes you need the KeyEvent Display app (probably there are others that do the same in the market) - just open it and press the key you want to map and notice the scancode value.
5. To find the usefull CMD values you can open the kaylayout file for the Acer BT keyboard and look at the CMDs there. For example EXPLORER opens the (default?) browser, KEYBOARD_UNLOCK gets you past the lock screen with just a press of a button, etc.
6. Once you are done with the mapping, save the file and copy it back to /system/usr/keylayout/ (you need to mount /system/ as rw first). I don't like editing in the /system/ folder, so any changes I do later are in the file located in /sdcard/ and then copy it back to /system/usr/keylayout/ (for some reason replacing the file doesn't work, so I have to delete it first and then copy it back)
You can edit the values in Generic.kl but this should affect all the keyboards that you connect, so it's better to create a specific .kl file for each one.
Any additions/corrections to this guide are welcome, especially if you know how to assign a key to launch a specific app, or how to open the app drawer (anything concerning the CMD values is highly appreciated)
Hope this helps someone!
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Keyboard Mapping
Thank you for this. I have a bluetooth keyboard with integrated mouse and wanted to get the values for Home, Back, and Recently Used apps. I use an HP HDMI to VGA to connect to an external monitor and once I remap the keyboard I can replace the laptop for this application.

tomlogan1 said:
Thank you for this. I have a bluetooth keyboard with integrated mouse and wanted to get the values for Home, Back, and Recently Used apps. I use an HP HDMI to VGA to connect to an external monitor and once I remap the keyboard I can replace the laptop for this application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, back is BACK, home is HOME, and you should be able to cycle through recent apps using alt+tab (not exactly the same as the recent apps button but close).
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Ok, so for clarification, let me make sure that I have this right because I seem to be getting stuck in the details somewhere.
Let's say that I want to remap the "s" key to be a "o" instead. My normal .kl file for the keyboard that I'm editing has things that look like this:
key 31 S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Upon using the KeyEvent Display app for the "s" key, I see something like:
^KeyDown: action=0 code=47 repeat=0 meta=0 scancode=31 mFlags=8 label='S' chars='null' number=' '
^KeyUp: action=1 code=47 repeat=0 meta=0 scancode=31 mFlags=8 label='S' chars='null' number=' '
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And so then in my text editor, I should change my .kl file to read like:
key 31 43
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where scancode 31 is for the "s" key and code 43 would be what would come up for "o" in KeyEvent Display.
Is that correct?

samstheman42 said:
Ok, so for clarification, let me make sure that I have this right because I seem to be getting stuck in the details somewhere.
Let's say that I want to remap the "s" key to be a "o" instead. My normal .kl file for the keyboard that I'm editing has things that look like this:
Upon using the KeyEvent Display app for the "s" key, I see something like:
And so then in my text editor, I should change my .kl file to read like:
where scancode 31 is for the "s" key and code 43 would be what would come up for "o" in KeyEvent Display.
Is that correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. You should have "key 31 O". The scancodes are for getting the number of the "special" keys (win, context menu, media control, etc.) that cannot be easily identified in the .kl file.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

when i type lsusb in terminal it returns: lsusb: applet not found
what is going on? could you help me?