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
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.
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.
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.
deleted by creator