On-screen keyboard selection - problem when attempting to set to "enabled always"

[andrum993]

[System: Pi 5, Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit bookworm with desktop, clean installed (to check I hadn't mucked something up myself) using network install, to NVMe drive. Single monitor connected to HDMI port 0, aka HDMI-A-1. Fully updated using apt from the command line.]

I thought I would investigate the on-screen keyboard, so started up rc_gui (Raspberry Pi Configuration) from the main raspberry menu on the desktop. I then went to the "display" tab and changed the "on-screen keyboard" combo from its default of "enabled if touchscreen found" to "enabled always", then pressed the OK button to close rc_gui and save the settings. This did not have the desired effect: squeekboard didn't appear, and neither did the panel plugin. I therefore rebooted, but neither appeared once the system came back up.

I then went back into rc_gui and noticed that the "on-screen keyboard location" combo was empty. I therefore set it to the only available choice - "HDMI-A-1" and clicked OK. Again, nothing. I therefore rebooted, and upon the system coming back up the panel plugin was visible in the top right. Clicking the panel plugin brought up squeekboard. So it seems that once I select which display to show squeekboard on, everything works correctly.

I then shut down the Pi, and moved the HDMI cable from port 0 to port 1 (i.e. to HDMI-A-2), the booted the Pi back up. The squeekboard panel plugin was visible in the top right of the panel, as I would expect, and squeekboard appeared when I clicked the panel plugin, and disappeared if I clicked it again. Going back into rc_gui, the "on-screen keyboard location" combo is blank, which is presumably because HDMI-A-1 doesn't have a screen connected to it.

So it looks like there is some setting that is not in place unless the user selects a valid display in the "on-screen keyboard location" combo at least once, in combination with the "enable always" option. I've not tested whether the same is true for the default setting, i.e. with a touchscreen detected, as I don't have a touchscreen to test it with.

Hotplugging my single screen between each HDMI port while the desktop is running works correctly - everything moves to the other screen without having to reload anything. Squeekboard and its panel plugin also work correctly if I have the "wrong" screen selected for the location of the on-screen keyboard: e.g. with the screen connected to HDMI-A-2 I select that for the location in rc_gui, then hotplug the screen from HDMI-A-2 to HDMI-A-1, then reboot, the panel plugin is visible and squeekboard works fine on HDMI-A-1.

I also tested switching back to "enabled only if touchscreen detected" with the location combo empty, and it works as expected in that case, i.e. the squeekboard plugin disappears from the panel, then if I go back in and choose "enabled always" it comes back up. So it looks like it is just the initial enabling of "enabled always" which doesn't work if the user has not, at some point, set a location for it.

Hope that rather long, rambling explanation makes sense.

[spl237]

Sorry - only just got around to looking at this. Should now be fixed as of when the update makes it into apt...

[andrum993]

Not a problem - as with most of the issues I raise, this one was for your assistance, rather than as a result of my annoyance, if you see what I mean.