Description: This is the first virtual keyboard for plasma. I made it for everyone who is using a touchscreen or plans to use one.
This is now part of the kdeplasma-addons package for KDE 4.4.
PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH FEEDBACK!
There are some requirements for compiling. Check out the following from the readme.
PLEASE REPORT BUGS IN THE COMMENTS
REQUIREMENTS: - You need a working GNU Compiler toolchain. - Cmake - KDE Headers files (kde development packages) - Xlib Header files (X develpment packages) - XTest Extension Header files (X develpment packages) - QT Header files (QT development packages)
HOW TO INSTALL
In the main directory run - cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` - make - make install/strip (as root or: sudo make install/strip )
KNOWN ISSUES
KNOWN ISSUES
- Plasmaboard does only (!) work when you place it in the panel. You can place it on the desktop but clicking on its buttons will do nothing
- When pressing "Alt Gr" the symbols on the keyboard do not adapt. This is an issue with the underlying X-Function, which seems only to do mapping for the shift key correctly. No known solution yet. Despite of that AltGr works as expected
- When changing the xkb-modmap, plasmaboard does not adapt automatically. You need to force the relabeling of the keys. Press "Shift" for example
- Backspace key does not work in eclipse. Don't know why. If you find other applications in which plasmaboard doesn't work as expected, please reportLast changelog:
1.0: This is the version of plasmaboard shipped with KDE 4.5.0 plus a bugfix. I provide it here for everyone still using KDE 4.4.
Advantages over the 4.4 version are quite big. Read here: http://btux1984.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/kdes-onscreen-keyboard/
0.91: - Fixed building bug
0.9: - WARNING: This is not compatible with KDE 4.2 anymore! - Will be part of KDE 4.4. kdeplasma-addons - Improved labeling of keys and its performance - Added transparency to key notifications - Added tooltip for the keyboard - Enhanced scaling behaviour inside of a plasma panel
0.8: - There is now a text label on the keyboard for switching between the basic and the extended layout. I think it is necessary that you can switch between them without using the context menu. However - if you have a bette idea how to provide this switching functionality please let me know.
0.7: - Font size on buttons is now scaled with the size of the keyboard - That means the key label will always fit onto the keys (minus some bad translations) - the popup showing the last pressed key is working far better now
0.6: - Much code cleanup - Fixed bug concerning the switch between layouts - Shows the last pressed key in a tooltip
Added the patch for kdelibs, that need to be applied for getting plasmaboard working on KDE 4.2.3/4.2.4 . Perhaps some package mantainers can add it to their packages?
0.51: - Fix for plasmaboard loosing focus when opened. This needs a patch for KDE which is NOT in the vanilla 4.2.4 packages. Hope to get some package maintainers patching their distro packages. It does work on coming KDE 4.3 releases, RC1 for example. - Added missing gpl stuff for packaging - nothing else, sorry, no time
0.5: - Clicking on keys like Control, Alt or Meta deactivates them now - Closing the keyboard clears all pressed function keys - Extended mode now provides a keyboard
0.4.2: Bugfix. Arrows on keys should be visible with every correct plasma theme now.
0.4.1 Just a small build-fix. If 0.4 it built for you, you don't need it. 0.4 still has a problem with unreadable labels on some keys. That's a problem with some plasma-themes I still have to investigate. In glassified and aya it works.
0.4: Enter, Tab, Shift, Caps, Backspace and ArrowKeys now have arrows painted on instead of a text label
0.3: Plasmaboard does now have all keys you might need. You can switch to the old basic layout via the conextmenu.
0.2: Many changes in the code. But you will notice the following enhancements: - keyboard is now fully scalable in all directions - symbols are repeated if you keep the key pressed - Changed WIN-label to META - Most "known issues" are gone
0.1.1: Bugfix. Function keys work now. (Enter, Backspace and so on didn't work in 0.1. Uh, that's painful). Changed labeling of Control and Enter-Key
when in a panel that does not span on whole screen the width is still whole screen, thus not completely visible
wish: font settings capabilities
thanks for your work
Hi,
Thanks for your work on Plasmaboard. It is very useful. However, using an AZERTY layout (French layout), I also have a bug.
When it is shown for the first time, everything is alright, I have the correct layout (first letter: a). However, although the AZERTY layout is displayed, this is in fact a QWERTY layout (if I type on "a", "q" is inputted). Using the shift button (either on Plasmaboard or on the real keyboard), the AZERTY layout is replaced by a QWERTY layout. When I release shift, the QWERTY layout stays.
Reading the comments above, it seems that there are issues with all the non-QWERTY layouts. Could you do something about it?
See the three images below to better understand:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HNjI3MzE1YTQtM2IyMi00ZDMwLWE5MjgtMzc0MmZlYzJjNWI1&hl=en&authkey=CK_M7u0L
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HMmE0ODJlMGEtMjYwMi00YjA3LTk4OWMtN2I4MWZjM2ZmMWI5&hl=en&authkey=CIz9_uAC
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HYzNkZTM3YWUtMDgwMC00YTQ2LTkyYWMtNzAxYTBmYjk4MWRl&hl=en&authkey=CLLfmgg
Hello! I've installed your widget and I like it, but there's some proplems with layouts (ru and us). When there's only russian or only english layout - it's okay, all works perfectly. But when I have both layouts, there are problems:
1. When XkbLayout is set to "us, ru", us layout works fine. Russian layout, however, has some keys missing (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, - and =): this buttons are blanc and pressing them switches layout back to us. Pressing shift also switches layout to us.
2. When XkbLayout is set to "ru, us" (ru first), both layouts has all their keys and look normal, but pressing shift still switches layout to us (not to default ru). Afterwards layout switching it bugging for a while, and I can't go back to ru until I reopen widget.
I would be grateful, if you would fix this bug, because your board is arguably the best virtual keyboard implementation on Linux (not only for KDE), and I really like to use it. Or, may be, there's a shamanistic trick (like changing layouts order), that could "fix" it? That would be enough =)
I'm running Arch Linux on 2.6.38.2 kernel. Sorry for poor english.
I'm trying to use your plasmoid but if it works with english and italian layout, on the russian layout has some problems... It shows something completly different letters... could you check out why?
TNX
PS
Tested with ubuntu package and source files
Hi,
As Kvkdb makes me sick, I tried to compile your plasmoid, but I've got this error,
:~/plasmaboard-1.0$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix`
CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindKDE4.cmake:98 (MESSAGE):
ERROR: cmake/modules/FindKDE4Internal.cmake not found in
/home/user/.kde/share/apps;/usr/share/kubuntu-netbook-default-settings/share/apps;/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde4-profile/default/share/apps;/usr/share/kde4/apps
Call Stack (most recent call first):
CMakeLists.txt:5 (find_package)
CMake Warning (dev) in CMakeLists.txt:
No cmake_minimum_required command is present. A line of code such as
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
should be added at the top of the file. The version specified may be lower
if you wish to support older CMake versions for this project. For more
information run "cmake --help-policy CMP0000".
This warning is for project developers. Use -Wno-dev to suppress it.
I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 on a Asus T101MT
Thanks for your help ....
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev.
Now the error has been changed by this one :
CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND.
Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files:
X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED)
linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
Thanks for your help
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev.
Now the error has been changed by this one :
CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND.
Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files:
X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED)
linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
Thanks for your help
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev.
Now the error has been changed by this one :
CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND.
Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files:
X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED)
linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
Thanks for your help
As you write
"… I provide it here for everyone still using KDE 4.4."
you should probably know, that plasmaboard 1.0 will not compile against KDE 4.4:
In member function 'void Tooltip::updateMask()':
tooltip.cpp:89: error: 'enableBlurBehind' is not a member of 'Plasma::WindowEffects'
As described on http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/plasma/html/namespacePlasma_1_1WindowEffects.html, the function enableBlurBehind was not part of KDE before 4.5.
A I understand this KDE 4 might get this nice application as an 'official' virtual keyboard. Even better would if it will integrate with KDE Lock Screen ( http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea83301 ).
I have used the plasmaboard a little bit and here are some of my thoughts (maybe they will interest you):
1) It would be nice if the keyboard will be movable (at the moment it seems to be stuck to the place, where plasmoid icon is placed).
2) A handy feature is lockable Meta(Win) button (just like Alt, Shift and Control), as Meta can be handy in various keyboard shortcuts too (especially if have a few dozens of them).
3) If button is locked (Meta, Alt, Shift, Control), I think, it will be more clear to somehow highlight it (maybe, with different color). So if you lock, for example Meta _and_ Shift you can clearly see it.
4) It would be nice if plasmaboard will be the first Linux virtual keyboard to work with Firefox 'Smart' address bar.
Virtual keyboards do not work well with Firefox >= 3.0 'Smart' address bar. 'Smart' addressbar steals focus (which makes it ignore keyboard chars) and does not respect 'keep above others' getting on top of the virtual keyboard. And that happens with ALL virtual keyboards I have tested (xvkbd, kvkbd, viki, cellwriter). By the way Windows Vista's virtual keyboard somehow works with Firefox 'Smart' bar just fine.
Thank your for your work and Good luck!
Andrey
Have many thanks for your feedback! The more the better plasmaboard can get.
Indeed, plasmaboard will be part of KDE 4.4's kdeplasma-addons package. So it is not fully integrated into KDE yet. But maybe we can move it on in KDE 4.5. (btw, got the impression, that some KDE devs don't like plasma for doing important things - very strange)
So, no chance for getting this into the lock screen for 4.4
Answering your points:
1) I will take back with the KDE devs for that. Currently plasmaboard is a Popup-Applet. And they are not meant for floating on the desktop. Currently there is no option I know to have a plasmoid above your windows. Although I can think of many usecases for that...
2) I see. Will change that.
3) You are right. I will make the keys keeping a pressed state
4) Ah, not much chance. Cannot do much about it. I use the same functions of xorg for creating faked key events as every other keyboard. If they don't work, I don't know a solution.
But I'll look into this. Focus is one of the biggest problems I have with plasmaboard
Great! You answer very quickly...
Concerning point 4) I think I should file a bug report to my distribution (openSUSE) Bugzilla. That way, I hope, It would be more clear where it should go upstream - to Mozilla or X.Org developers.
And I almost forgot one small thing: keyboard layout changes nicely just as it would with real keyboard (through Caps Lock in my system). And the characters it generates are also correct. However, keyboard itself still shows English keyboard layout. I tried switching to Russian, German, Croatian Turkish, Georgian.
It is quite a challenging task to type, for example, Russian on virtual keyboard with English layout.
Andrey
A I understand this KDE 4 might get this nice application as an 'official' virtual keyboard. Even better would if it will integrate with KDE Lock Screen ( http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea83301 ).
I have used the plasmaboard a little bit and here are some of my thoughts (maybe they will interest you):
1) It would be nice if the keyboard will be movable (at the moment it seems to be stuck to the place, where plasmoid icon is placed).
2) A handy feature is lockable Meta(Win) button (just like Alt, Shift and Control), as Meta can be handy in various keyboard shortcuts too (especially if have a few dozens of them).
3) If button is locked (Meta, Alt, Shift, Control), I think, it will be more clear to somehow highlight it (maybe, with different color). So if you lock, for example Meta _and_ Shift you can clearly see it.
4) It would be nice if plasmaboard will be the first Linux virtual keyboard to work with Firefox 'Smart' address bar.
Virtual keyboards do not work well with Firefox >= 3.0 'Smart' address bar. 'Smart' addressbar steals focus (which makes it ignore keyboard chars) and does not respect 'keep above others' getting on top of the virtual keyboard. And that happens with ALL virtual keyboards I have tested (xvkbd, kvkbd, viki, cellwriter). By the way Windows Vista's virtual keyboard somehow works with Firefox 'Smart' bar just fine.
Thank your for your work and Good luck!
Andrey
When I try to build version 0.9 on KDE 4.3.2 (openSUSE 11.2 RC2, Qt 4.5.3), the build fails with the following messages:
http://pastebin.ca/1652189
The build environment should be correct, other plasmoids build with no problems.
Another problem was the CMakeLists.txt, which missed
Quote:
Thanks for reporting! 0.9 is perfectly compatible with KDE 4.3.2 - you just won't have much luck with KDE 4.2
Ich messed up the cmake file and reverted that. Try version 0.91
I'm a gentoo user, and the latest version works incredibly well for almost all use-cases. This is an incredibly useful plasmoid for touch screens.
The one use-case that it didn't work under was typing into other plasmoids, and I can appreciate the difficulty in implementing that. Good luck, and well done thus far!
Ratings & Comments
87 Comments
when in a panel that does not span on whole screen the width is still whole screen, thus not completely visible wish: font settings capabilities thanks for your work
Hi, Thanks for your work on Plasmaboard. It is very useful. However, using an AZERTY layout (French layout), I also have a bug. When it is shown for the first time, everything is alright, I have the correct layout (first letter: a). However, although the AZERTY layout is displayed, this is in fact a QWERTY layout (if I type on "a", "q" is inputted). Using the shift button (either on Plasmaboard or on the real keyboard), the AZERTY layout is replaced by a QWERTY layout. When I release shift, the QWERTY layout stays. Reading the comments above, it seems that there are issues with all the non-QWERTY layouts. Could you do something about it? See the three images below to better understand: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HNjI3MzE1YTQtM2IyMi00ZDMwLWE5MjgtMzc0MmZlYzJjNWI1&hl=en&authkey=CK_M7u0L https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HMmE0ODJlMGEtMjYwMi00YjA3LTk4OWMtN2I4MWZjM2ZmMWI5&hl=en&authkey=CIz9_uAC https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5__0GmhNb5HYzNkZTM3YWUtMDgwMC00YTQ2LTkyYWMtNzAxYTBmYjk4MWRl&hl=en&authkey=CLLfmgg
Hello! I've installed your widget and I like it, but there's some proplems with layouts (ru and us). When there's only russian or only english layout - it's okay, all works perfectly. But when I have both layouts, there are problems: 1. When XkbLayout is set to "us, ru", us layout works fine. Russian layout, however, has some keys missing (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, - and =): this buttons are blanc and pressing them switches layout back to us. Pressing shift also switches layout to us. 2. When XkbLayout is set to "ru, us" (ru first), both layouts has all their keys and look normal, but pressing shift still switches layout to us (not to default ru). Afterwards layout switching it bugging for a while, and I can't go back to ru until I reopen widget. I would be grateful, if you would fix this bug, because your board is arguably the best virtual keyboard implementation on Linux (not only for KDE), and I really like to use it. Or, may be, there's a shamanistic trick (like changing layouts order), that could "fix" it? That would be enough =) I'm running Arch Linux on 2.6.38.2 kernel. Sorry for poor english.
I'm trying to use your plasmoid but if it works with english and italian layout, on the russian layout has some problems... It shows something completly different letters... could you check out why? TNX PS Tested with ubuntu package and source files
Great Job !!!! If I could give one suggest : It should be great if the transparent function is available We could see what we write :-) Thanks anyway
Hi, As Kvkdb makes me sick, I tried to compile your plasmoid, but I've got this error, :~/plasmaboard-1.0$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindKDE4.cmake:98 (MESSAGE): ERROR: cmake/modules/FindKDE4Internal.cmake not found in /home/user/.kde/share/apps;/usr/share/kubuntu-netbook-default-settings/share/apps;/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde4-profile/default/share/apps;/usr/share/kde4/apps Call Stack (most recent call first): CMakeLists.txt:5 (find_package) CMake Warning (dev) in CMakeLists.txt: No cmake_minimum_required command is present. A line of code such as cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8) should be added at the top of the file. The version specified may be lower if you wish to support older CMake versions for this project. For more information run "cmake --help-policy CMP0000". This warning is for project developers. Use -Wno-dev to suppress it. I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 on a Asus T101MT Thanks for your help ....
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev. Now the error has been changed by this one : CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND. Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files: X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED) linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0 -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! Thanks for your help
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev. Now the error has been changed by this one : CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND. Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files: X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED) linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0 -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! Thanks for your help
I found something on the web so I uninstalled kdelibs4-dev for puting in place of kdelibs5-dev. Now the error has been changed by this one : CMake Error: The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND. Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files: X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED) linked by target "plasma_applet_plasmaboard" in directory /home/mdubois/plasmaboard-1.0 -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! Thanks for your help
libxtst-dev package was missing....Sorry for the twins post my browser make me crazy too The make passed well now Thanks anyway
As you write "… I provide it here for everyone still using KDE 4.4." you should probably know, that plasmaboard 1.0 will not compile against KDE 4.4: In member function 'void Tooltip::updateMask()': tooltip.cpp:89: error: 'enableBlurBehind' is not a member of 'Plasma::WindowEffects' As described on http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/plasma/html/namespacePlasma_1_1WindowEffects.html, the function enableBlurBehind was not part of KDE before 4.5.
A I understand this KDE 4 might get this nice application as an 'official' virtual keyboard. Even better would if it will integrate with KDE Lock Screen ( http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea83301 ). I have used the plasmaboard a little bit and here are some of my thoughts (maybe they will interest you): 1) It would be nice if the keyboard will be movable (at the moment it seems to be stuck to the place, where plasmoid icon is placed). 2) A handy feature is lockable Meta(Win) button (just like Alt, Shift and Control), as Meta can be handy in various keyboard shortcuts too (especially if have a few dozens of them). 3) If button is locked (Meta, Alt, Shift, Control), I think, it will be more clear to somehow highlight it (maybe, with different color). So if you lock, for example Meta _and_ Shift you can clearly see it. 4) It would be nice if plasmaboard will be the first Linux virtual keyboard to work with Firefox 'Smart' address bar. Virtual keyboards do not work well with Firefox >= 3.0 'Smart' address bar. 'Smart' addressbar steals focus (which makes it ignore keyboard chars) and does not respect 'keep above others' getting on top of the virtual keyboard. And that happens with ALL virtual keyboards I have tested (xvkbd, kvkbd, viki, cellwriter). By the way Windows Vista's virtual keyboard somehow works with Firefox 'Smart' bar just fine. Thank your for your work and Good luck! Andrey
Oops... Sory for double post. Firefox does not love me...
Have many thanks for your feedback! The more the better plasmaboard can get. Indeed, plasmaboard will be part of KDE 4.4's kdeplasma-addons package. So it is not fully integrated into KDE yet. But maybe we can move it on in KDE 4.5. (btw, got the impression, that some KDE devs don't like plasma for doing important things - very strange) So, no chance for getting this into the lock screen for 4.4 Answering your points: 1) I will take back with the KDE devs for that. Currently plasmaboard is a Popup-Applet. And they are not meant for floating on the desktop. Currently there is no option I know to have a plasmoid above your windows. Although I can think of many usecases for that... 2) I see. Will change that. 3) You are right. I will make the keys keeping a pressed state 4) Ah, not much chance. Cannot do much about it. I use the same functions of xorg for creating faked key events as every other keyboard. If they don't work, I don't know a solution. But I'll look into this. Focus is one of the biggest problems I have with plasmaboard
Great! You answer very quickly... Concerning point 4) I think I should file a bug report to my distribution (openSUSE) Bugzilla. That way, I hope, It would be more clear where it should go upstream - to Mozilla or X.Org developers. And I almost forgot one small thing: keyboard layout changes nicely just as it would with real keyboard (through Caps Lock in my system). And the characters it generates are also correct. However, keyboard itself still shows English keyboard layout. I tried switching to Russian, German, Croatian Turkish, Georgian. It is quite a challenging task to type, for example, Russian on virtual keyboard with English layout. Andrey
Difficult thing. Hope that a developer with a non-english keyboard layout can do something about it. I know only english layouts.
A I understand this KDE 4 might get this nice application as an 'official' virtual keyboard. Even better would if it will integrate with KDE Lock Screen ( http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea83301 ). I have used the plasmaboard a little bit and here are some of my thoughts (maybe they will interest you): 1) It would be nice if the keyboard will be movable (at the moment it seems to be stuck to the place, where plasmoid icon is placed). 2) A handy feature is lockable Meta(Win) button (just like Alt, Shift and Control), as Meta can be handy in various keyboard shortcuts too (especially if have a few dozens of them). 3) If button is locked (Meta, Alt, Shift, Control), I think, it will be more clear to somehow highlight it (maybe, with different color). So if you lock, for example Meta _and_ Shift you can clearly see it. 4) It would be nice if plasmaboard will be the first Linux virtual keyboard to work with Firefox 'Smart' address bar. Virtual keyboards do not work well with Firefox >= 3.0 'Smart' address bar. 'Smart' addressbar steals focus (which makes it ignore keyboard chars) and does not respect 'keep above others' getting on top of the virtual keyboard. And that happens with ALL virtual keyboards I have tested (xvkbd, kvkbd, viki, cellwriter). By the way Windows Vista's virtual keyboard somehow works with Firefox 'Smart' bar just fine. Thank your for your work and Good luck! Andrey
When I try to build version 0.9 on KDE 4.3.2 (openSUSE 11.2 RC2, Qt 4.5.3), the build fails with the following messages: http://pastebin.ca/1652189 The build environment should be correct, other plasmoids build with no problems. Another problem was the CMakeLists.txt, which missed Quote:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
find_package(KDE4 REQUIRED)
include(KDE4Defaults)
Is version 0.9 not suitable for KDE 4.3.2?
Best greetings
Thanks for reporting! 0.9 is perfectly compatible with KDE 4.3.2 - you just won't have much luck with KDE 4.2 Ich messed up the cmake file and reverted that. Try version 0.91
Yes, now it works. :)
Please add a KDE4 tooltip over icon when plasmoid is in plasma panel and the mouse is put over it.
Okay, added it in KDE 4.4 trunk
Link with patch for kdelib is broken :(
Sorry, I repaired that. Still not having upgraded to KDE 4.3? ;)
I'm a gentoo user, and the latest version works incredibly well for almost all use-cases. This is an incredibly useful plasmoid for touch screens. The one use-case that it didn't work under was typing into other plasmoids, and I can appreciate the difficulty in implementing that. Good luck, and well done thus far!