Onboard

Commands to highlight a key and then select it

Asked by Steve Molbach

I would like to use onboard in an environment without a touchscreen, using a remote for user input. (Think Roku setup keyboard...)

Does onboard have the capability to accept command line instruction to: highlight a key, move up/down/left/right on the keyboard, and then select the currently highlighted key?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Expired
For:
Onboard Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
marmuta (marmuta) said : 		#1

There are no command line instructions for this, but theoretically keyboard scanning can be configured for 5 buttons and directional control. This might be an option if your remote can send key-strokes for up/down/left/right and activate (to press the highlighted key).

In Preferences->Universal Access click "Scanner Settings" and choose "Directed scan for 3 or 5 switches". In the Input device tab, pick the device of the remote and assign all 5 actions to whatever the remote generates.

Close Scanner Settings and enable enable keyboard scanning.

I noticed some issues with this, however. If you want the option "Use this device only for scanning", to work (and you probably do), you have to set
Preferences->Keyboard->Advanced->Input event source
 to "GTK". I'll look into this.

Also there are a number of inconveniences. The highlighted key returns to the default position after each press and "key repeat" aka "User scan" doesn't seem to work.

Try it and see for yourself. If you would like to use it, I'll look into improving the behavior.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#2

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.