Has anybody worked out if the keyboard has a Ctrl key or a function that works like Ctrl , handy when quitting apps eg Ctrl Q.
Or editing.
I couldnt find it when I used the device.
Cheers
That's very strange because I have it on my MDA II's touchscreen keyboard. Are you talking about the touchscreen keyboard that you have to pop up by pressing the up arrow in the lower right-hand corner in the Messages app for instance?
I wonder whether this feature would also be ROM-dependent.
i meant the hard keyboard not sip. its on sip but when i used the universal i couldnt see it.
Yes I am interested in the Ctrl button on the universal as well, I owned a XDAIIs and found the keyboard on that didn't have the Ctrl key either so you can't do CUT/COPY or paste unless there is another way. I cut and paste heaps so the keyboard was useless to me on the XDAIIs.
Any one know if there is another way to do this on the Universal Keyboard.
what a wind up this is, cant believe they missed the ctrl button off the proper keyboard.
The keyboard has Cut/copy/paste function, so I am happy.
Jasjar is the most awesome PPC Phone yet.
there is a screen tap key (a bit like the right mouse click key on a full computer) this brings up the menu option, with copy and cut in it !! then you can just pres the relevant letter on the keyboard, thus having the same effect (ie press a function key then C or T or V).
PS its Fn [Space] key
cool... i wondered what that key did! that is useful!
[ctrl] is used for more things than copy+paste.
I use my Exec to communicate with *NIX servers using Pocket PuTTY. [ctrl] is kind of essential.
Agree, using putty is a nightmare without a ctrl key. Is there any way of mapping another key to do the same function
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!
Hi, I just registered here, but have been reading parts of the forums for some time. I first had Motorola Milestone, that I managed to successfully flash with CM7 using information found here. Thanks to all for sharing their knowledge .
Now I have switched to Milestone 2 (bought with CM10.1 by Engle_Mars nightly installed, and had some troubles upgrading to 10.2 but it finally worked, and I am happy ). Thanks Engle_Mars for the great job.
There is one feature that I really miss from the previous Milestone. That is multipress, which allows you to double-press a key in the physical keyboard to make a national character associated with this key. For my language (Polish) it is for example a -> ą. This is much faster than the default long pressing and choosing the wanted character from the list, and I very much liked it in CM7 (it was under System Settings -> Device Settings). But in CM10.1 and CM10.2 from Engle_Mars I cannot find this feature. Is it not there, or am I overlooking it? Is there an app that could add this functionality? (I searched, but couldn't find any). If no, is it possible you could add this, Engle_Mars? I found mentions of this feature in threads for other phones using CM10, so I suppose it is a part of CM10, but didn't make it to Milestone 2 port for some reason.
kaziq said:
Hi, I just registered here, but have been reading parts of the forums for some time. I first had Motorola Milestone, that I managed to successfully flash with CM7 using information found here. Thanks to all for sharing their knowledge .
Now I have switched to Milestone 2 (bought with CM10.1 by Engle_Mars nightly installed, and had some troubles upgrading to 10.2 but it finally worked, and I am happy ). Thanks Engle_Mars for the great job.
There is one feature that I really miss from the previous Milestone. That is multipress, which allows you to double-press a key in the physical keyboard to make a national character associated with this key. For my language (Polish) it is for example a -> ą. This is much faster than the default long pressing and choosing the wanted character from the list, and I very much liked it in CM7 (it was under System Settings -> Device Settings). But in CM10.1 and CM10.2 from Engle_Mars I cannot find this feature. Is it not there, or am I overlooking it? Is there an app that could add this functionality? (I searched, but couldn't find any). If no, is it possible you could add this, Engle_Mars? I found mentions of this feature in threads for other phones using CM10, so I suppose it is a part of CM10, but didn't make it to Milestone 2 port for some reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Czechop cm 10.2 version (4.3.1 jellybean) has polish characters. Have a try.
Fedroid said:
Czechop cm 10.2 version (4.3.1 jellybean) has polish characters. Have a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I am already using it
The problem is not in the Polish characters availability, because they are available with a long press (and touch), but in the far more convenient way of typing them by double pressing (no touching necessary).
kaziq said:
Thanks, but I am already using it
The problem is not in the Polish characters availability, because they are available with a long press (and touch), but in the far more convenient way of typing them by double pressing (no touching necessary).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Active metakeys and hit alt-lock and then the key asigned.
To access polish letters, choose Qwerty polish in Settings->Language & Input->Sholes keypad->Set up keyboard layout. Use ALT LOCK or ALT LOCK + SHIFT to get polish letters. ALT LOCK + '?' is mapped to pipe symbol('|').
To use META key you have to turn off android hotkey shortcuts. Unfortunately lately they made this option invisible in settings. To open it you have to type this in terminal (with root access):
su
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.quicklaunch.QuickLaunchSettings
It is supposed that you can hit alt lock and another fisical key to get your polish characters (no double pressing but at least pressing two keys)
Greetings:highfive:
Fedroid said:
Active metakeys and hit alt-lock and then the key asigned.
To access polish letters, choose Qwerty polish in Settings->Language & Input->Sholes keypad->Set up keyboard layout. Use ALT LOCK or ALT LOCK + SHIFT to get polish letters. ALT LOCK + '?' is mapped to pipe symbol('|').
To use META key you have to turn off android hotkey shortcuts. Unfortunately lately they made this option invisible in settings. To open it you have to type this in terminal (with root access):
su
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.quicklaunch.QuickLaunchSettings
It is supposed that you can hit alt lock and another fisical key to get your polish characters (no double pressing but at least pressing two keys)
Greetings:highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. That feature would be a bit less convenient, but still cool. But I can't make it working.
I called the QuickLaunchSettings, and cleared all shortcuts (there was no option to disable the whole QuickLaunch). Then I entered the Sholes keypad -> Set up keyboard layouts, and chose QWERTY-polish. After that Alt-lock works like before (one Alt-lock + letter gives that letter, another one gives the blue symbol on the same key). Adequately Alt-lock + ? does not give the pipe, but ? or /.
Maybe I should have disabled the QuickLaunch thing as a whole, but I can't find a way to do that.
kaziq said:
Thanks. That feature would be a bit less convenient, but still cool. But I can't make it working.
I called the QuickLaunchSettings, and cleared all shortcuts (there was no option to disable the whole QuickLaunch). Then I entered the Sholes keypad -> Set up keyboard layouts, and chose QWERTY-polish. After that Alt-lock works like before (one Alt-lock + letter gives that letter, another one gives the blue symbol on the same key). Adequately Alt-lock + ? does not give the pipe, but ? or /.
Maybe I should have disabled the QuickLaunch thing as a whole, but I can't find a way to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need contact rabinhood, he will help you. He is the key master!:laugh:
kaziq said:
Thanks. That feature would be a bit less convenient, but still cool. But I can't make it working.
I called the QuickLaunchSettings, and cleared all shortcuts (there was no option to disable the whole QuickLaunch). Then I entered the Sholes keypad -> Set up keyboard layouts, and chose QWERTY-polish. After that Alt-lock works like before (one Alt-lock + letter gives that letter, another one gives the blue symbol on the same key). Adequately Alt-lock + ? does not give the pipe, but ? or /.
Maybe I should have disabled the QuickLaunch thing as a whole, but I can't find a way to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello.
First thing for not to get lost in JB keyboard is that keyboard mapping seems to be done in several "layers":
the closest to hardware is /system/usr/keylayout/sholes-keypad.kl (the exact file name may be different in different ROMs, but this file is used to manage built-in hardware qwerty, there are more files here for other devices - mostly bluetooth keyboards)
This file is used to translate hardware key scan codes to system key names (ALT, SPACE, A, B, C, and so on)
/system/usr/keychars/sholes-querty.kcm (name may also be different ie. snoles-keypad.kcm, more files are for different hardware)
This file is used for telling system what character should be displayed (entered) after pressing a particular key with or without particular modifier keys (what to enter after pressing A, SHIFT+A, ALT+A, META+A, and so on).
Both of these are simple text files, and can be edited directly, to achieve effects you have to reboot system. Also beware! If you mess up with these files, you may disable hardware keyboard completely! Then rescue is overwriting bad files with originals from backup.
options found in android settings -> keyboard (Polish-QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ) work like overlays, if you enable them, the system will use mixture of original kcm file, and the overlay - so depending on what an overlay contents, it may disable some keys you defined in your kcm
So if you want to modify keyboard, you have to disable these overlays, otherwise you will not get any effect (and may become a bit frustrated, like I was before I found this).
I attach my latest files with Polish letters entered with ALT_RIGHT modifier (obtained after holding ALT key), blue symbols entered with ALT (obtained after pressing, then releasing ALT key, and then pressing apropriate letter key), Greek letters with META key (mapped on ALT_LOCK). To have uppercase letters you have to press SHIFT release SHIFT, then ALT+key for Polish letters, or same with META for Greek letters.
To have CAPS, you have to press SHIFT twice. To have ALT_LOCK, you have to press ALT twice.
I'm wondering. Right now I have, let's say, multi-ALT (acting like ALT_RIGHT when held, and like ALT when held and released). Maybe it will be possible to code META in exactly same way, so we'll have another modifier key (META_RIGHT), but that's just an idea, and I haven't researched that yet.
I also wanted to encode arrow characters (right, left, up and down arrows) on META-left, META-right and so on, but also haven't had time to do that yet.
Regards!
Chris
[edit]
Added arrow characters (META+left, META+right, etc). Added not equals sign (ALT+META+G), equal or smaller (ALT+META+Z), qual or greater (ALT+META+X), double tilda (ALT+META+~), euro (META+~).
New files in attachment.
rabinhood said:
Hello.
First thing for not to get lost in JB keyboard is that keyboard mapping seems to be done in several "layers":
the closest to hardware is /system/usr/keylayout/sholes-keypad.kl (the exact file name may be different in different ROMs, but this file is used to manage built-in hardware qwerty, there are more files here for other devices - mostly bluetooth keyboards)
This file is used to translate hardware key scan codes to system key names (ALT, SPACE, A, B, C, and so on)
/system/usr/keychars/sholes-querty.kcm (name may also be different ie. snoles-keypad.kcm, more files are for different hardware)
This file is used for telling system what character should be displayed (entered) after pressing a particular key with or without particular modifier keys (what to enter after pressing A, SHIFT+A, ALT+A, META+A, and so on).
Both of these are simple text files, and can be edited directly, to achieve effects you have to reboot system. Also beware! If you mess up with these files, you may disable hardware keyboard completely! Then rescue is overwriting bad files with originals from backup.
options found in android settings -> keyboard (Polish-QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ) work like overlays, if you enable them, the system will use mixture of original kcm file, and the overlay - so depending on what an overlay contents, it may disable some keys you defined in your kcm
So if you want to modify keyboard, you have to disable these overlays, otherwise you will not get any effect (and may become a bit frustrated, like I was before I found this).
I attach my latest files with Polish letters entered with ALT_RIGHT modifier (obtained after holding ALT key), blue symbols entered with ALT (obtained after pressing, then releasing ALT key, and then pressing apropriate letter key), Greek letters with META key (mapped on ALT_LOCK). To have uppercase letters you have to press SHIFT release SHIFT, then ALT+key for Polish letters, or same with META for Greek letters.
To have CAPS, you have to press SHIFT twice. To have ALT_LOCK, you have to press ALT twice.
I'm wondering. Right now I have, let's say, multi-ALT (acting like ALT_RIGHT when held, and like ALT when held and released). Maybe it will be possible to code META in exactly same way, so we'll have another modifier key (META_RIGHT), but that's just an idea, and I haven't researched that yet.
I also wanted to encode arrow characters (right, left, up and down arrows) on META-left, META-right and so on, but also haven't had time to do that yet.
Regards!
Chris
[edit]
Added arrow characters (META+left, META+right, etc). Added not equals sign (ALT+META+G), equal or smaller (ALT+META+Z), qual or greater (ALT+META+X), double tilda (ALT+META+~), euro (META+~).
New files in attachment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cześć
Thanks for the explanation. Only after Fedroid's suggestion to contact you I have checked the Czechop's CM10.2 thread (found some of your posts there), and found out that you were working on the Polish keyboard. The instruction Fedroid gave me was not working, because I was not using the latest Chechop's CM release. I have now upgraded, and the keyboard is working. However there are some very minor issues:
(I am not using the keys file you posted, but only the features in the rom (23.10.2013).
1. After installation there is no default on-screen keyboard (and you cannot set it). This makes the buttons (Menu, Back, and Search) and the physical keyboard not working at all. The solution is to switch the system to another language and back to Polish. It might be a bug (probably not yours), but I cannot post in the devel threads yet.
2. "Ń" does not work. I remember like 10 years ago I was making a charmap conversion feature for my program, and found out that there was a conflict (of char codes), that "Ń" could not be mapped. I don't remember the details, but I suppose it might be the case here too.
3. Pressing ALT(-Lock) + DEL or ALT(-Lock) and then DEL causes the whole SMS or sentence to be deleted. Since in the SMS app there is no indication of the ALT-Lock state, you can easily do that by an accident and there is no Undo. Is it possible to disable the ALT(-Lock) modifier on the DEL key (so that it will only delete the whole sentence when ALT(-Lock) is pressed together with DEL)?
Thanks for the work you are doing .
Hello.
Czechop has included in his ROM some older version of my files. Without META key, and with ALT_RIGHT mapped to "ALT LOCK" key. Honestly speaking, I cannot tell much about his implementation, since first thing I do after his ROM flash is I overwrite sholes-keypad kl & kcm files with my own (with more features). I also encourage You to do so, since my files seem not to be affected with at least bugs 1 and 2 You presented.
Ad1: I have no problems with on-screen keyboard - if hardware keyboard if closed, on-screen version pops up. Also four capacitive buttons under screen work flawlessly.
Ad2: I have no problems with Ń (right now I've entered it with my hardware keyboard). Czechop told me about some problems with Ń, that system is not able to recognize too big number of keys pressed simultanously, and somehow Ń was suffering, but as you can see I've just entered it for the second time with no problems.
Ad3: I don't know how to fix it. Del key doesn't appear in kcm file, and I don't know how to modify it. And yes, pressing Del+ALT removes whole line, which is quite annoying. I'll do some more investigation, and maybe I'll find something.
Regards! It's nice to see, that at least in the field of MS2 android development Poland has some real power! :-ł
rabinhood said:
Hello.
Czechop has included in his ROM some older version of my files. Without META key, and with ALT_RIGHT mapped to "ALT LOCK" key. Honestly speaking, I cannot tell much about his implementation, since first thing I do after his ROM flash is I overwrite sholes-keypad kl & kcm files with my own (with more features). I also encourage You to do so, since my files seem not to be affected with at least bugs 1 and 2 You presented.
Ad1: I have no problems with on-screen keyboard - if hardware keyboard if closed, on-screen version pops up. Also four capacitive buttons under screen work flawlessly.
Ad2: I have no problems with Ń (right now I've entered it with my hardware keyboard). Czechop told me about some problems with Ń, that system is not able to recognize too big number of keys pressed simultanously, and somehow Ń was suffering, but as you can see I've just entered it for the second time with no problems.
Ad3: I don't know how to fix it. Del key doesn't appear in kcm file, and I don't know how to modify it. And yes, pressing Del+ALT removes whole line, which is quite annoying. I'll do some more investigation, and maybe I'll find something.
Regards! It's nice to see, that at least in the field of MS2 android development Poland has some real power! :-ł
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I finally decided to try your files out, but I have hit a serious problem. When I tried to rename the file /system/usr/keychars/sholes-qwerty.kcm for a backup, I couldn't do it. I tried the ES File Explorer (root mode on), and it showed "the task did not succeed". I also tried typing su then mv sholes-qwerty.kcm sholes-qwerty-old.kcm while in the right directory, and got "Read-only files system".
How do I apply your files?
If czechops rom uses your key mapping files, i like to thank you rabinhood. Works well with german umlauts out of the box. And thanks to this thread I found out how to use them.
Greetings
hamu
kaziq said:
Thanks. I finally decided to try your files out, but I have hit a serious problem. When I tried to rename the file /system/usr/keychars/sholes-qwerty.kcm for a backup, I couldn't do it. I tried the ES File Explorer (root mode on), and it showed "the task did not succeed". I also tried typing su then mv sholes-qwerty.kcm sholes-qwerty-old.kcm while in the right directory, and got "Read-only files system".
How do I apply your files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have problems with root access from file manager, I think the easiest and most reliable way to modify system files is:
1. Enter bootloader menu.
2. Select Tools -> USB Mount tools -> Share system
3. It should be recognized and mounted on your PC. (I'm running Linux, I think Windows won't be able to mount ext3/ext4 partition without some extra software.)
4. To copy files you have to be logged as root.
If I want to copy these files from running Android, I use ROM Toolbox Pro -> Root explorer.
---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 AM ----------
hamuchen said:
If czechops rom uses your key mapping files, i like to thank you rabinhood. Works well with german umlauts out of the box. And thanks to this thread I found out how to use them.
Greetings
hamu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umlauts are Czechop's job. Say "thank you" to him.
rabinhood said:
If you have problems with root access from file manager, I think the easiest and most reliable way to modify system files is:
1. Enter bootloader menu.
2. Select Tools -> USB Mount tools -> Share system
3. It should be recognized and mounted on your PC. (I'm running Linux, I think Windows won't be able to mount ext3/ext4 partition without some extra software.)
4. To copy files you have to be logged as root.
If I want to copy these files from running Android, I use ROM Toolbox Pro -> Root explorer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I used the bootloader and a small linux pc (OpenPandora), and it worked .
But now only the Polish characters work with ALT-hold. Greek does not work (ALT-Lock + key does not produce anything), but ALT-Lock + arrows also work. It doesn't matter for me, because I don't use Greek letters, and this way is more comfortable for Polish chars.
A small quirk: Capital Polich characters work with Shift + ALT + key pressed as well as Shift press and release and then ALT + key. Except for... Ń, which works only with the latter . It's not an issue for me, just a funny notice.
Thanks again for this.
rabinhood said:
Umlauts are Czechop's job. Say "thank you" to him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, ok. Then, nevermind. But thank you anyway for not letting this device die.
Greetings
hamu
kaziq said:
Thanks. I used the bootloader and a small linux pc (OpenPandora), and it worked .
But now only the Polish characters work with ALT-hold. Greek does not work (ALT-Lock + key does not produce anything), but ALT-Lock + arrows also work. It doesn't matter for me, because I don't use Greek letters, and this way is more comfortable for Polish chars.
A small quirk: Capital Polich characters work with Shift + ALT + key pressed as well as Shift press and release and then ALT + key. Except for... Ń, which works only with the latter . It's not an issue for me, just a funny notice.
Thanks again for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, yes, now I see what's going on with Ń. I haven't noticed it before, as I always press SHIFT, release it, and press ALT+key. Czechop told me that it is some kind of bug in keyboard hardware driver not dealing with too many keys pressed at the same time (but in particular N key).
My Greek letters are working, I don't know what might happen. Just in case I attach again latest version of kl/kcm files. Please copy them over files you have now, and remember to disable any keyboard overlays in CM10.2 settings.
Thanks.
I've recently been trying to learn german just to expand my knowledge a bit, this of course requires german characters however I am using a laptop with a UK English keyboard for which there is no way to type german characters without the old alt+numpad trick, which is great but my laptop doesnt have a numpad either as phyical keys or a Fn+something else combo.
My intended solution was to over-ride the existing alt-gr + u = ú as is default on a UK keyboard to be ü instead and managed to create this new layout with the old Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator tool here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22339
But I cannot for the life of me work out how to activate a file created with that tool as my actual keyboard layout.
The only guide I found simply said to double click the .ksc file and windows will do the rest, no, it opened the tool again. If I select project > test keyboard layout it works 100% perfectly. I did find build DLL and setup package in that menu too, this gave me a setup.exe which I have ran but my new layout does not appear as an option in control panel as a selectable layout for any language?
I have tried rebooting the system, it still doesnt appear as an option. Is it not possible to use 3rd party keyboard layouts anymore?
Rebooted (again), re-ran the setup program, rebooted again and it still wasnt there but was importable as a layout in the editing tool, rebooted yet again and it suddenly enabled itself as the active language.
So I guess its sorted but being very temperamental about installation in the first place.
Why not just install the German keyboard via Control Panel | Language. It's fast to toggle between keyboards with Win+Space. Umlauted vowels (and anything language-specific) are then easily accessible.
For single-key mapping, the old KeyTweak still works fine in 8.1. Pretty simple to use. My old KB doesn't have the Windows key, and I was surprised that it could be remapped.
That was my original workaround, but that stuck the umlauted keys ontop of things like - and ; At least with my reconfigured keyboard I can make the connection between u and ü and I no longer have to cycle languages occasionally, didnt appreciate the swapping of Y and Z much either.
Although thats another weird issue. right now win key + space does nothing because I have turned german language off again, but sometimes after restoring from hibernate English US appears as an option I can switch between, then hibernate and resume the machine again and English US disappears? Very strange, not a major issue at least.
>but that stuck the umlauted keys ontop of things like - and ;
If you're learning Deutsch, I doubt a single key remap is adequate. Have hard-copy printout of the KB layout next to you, and refer to it. Or, if you just need the occasional ä/ö/ü, toggle out, type the char, and toggle back to ENG. Although English is now my primary language, this is what I do when I need to type in my native tongue.
Have not encountered issues with hibernating and disappearing keyboards. Then again, I don't do hib. The active keyboard has an indicator on the taskbar, so there shouldn't be confusion.