Android Keyboard Not Showing Up in Waydroid

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I try to type in an Android onscreen keyboard (tt9) into programs running on Kubuntu 26.04. I followed Many-Conversation963 instruction in this reddit post:

This worked for me on Gboard: Run waydroid in a wayland compositor (using weston), then set weston KWinRules (kde syssettings>winmanagement>kwinrules press add new then pick proprieties and click on the weston window. add everything.) then add prop FOCUS STEALING PREVENTIONS set to force extreme and ACCEPT FOCCUS set force no. after that install kde connect on both hosts and they should automatically connect via the wifi bridge. now open remote control on the kde-connect on waydroid and have fun!

Note that you need to disable the kwinrule to launch waydroid since it prevents weston frol stealing the keyboard input

I have Waydroid running in Weston and installed kde connect 1.35.17 both in Waydroid and the Kubuntu 26.04.

What works: I can type in the “Compose Text” with the Android onscreen keyboard and send it successfully to any app running in Kubuntu.

What does not work: When opening Remote Control the Android keyboard does not show up even when pressing the “show keyboard” button at the top right corner. Ticking the “show keyboard initially” setting does also not work. The keyboard will only show up in the “Compose Text” tab. So I cannot directly type into Kubuntu app and have to use the “Compose Text” workaround. The keyboard also does not show up when running kde connect directly in Wayland without Weston.

Any suggestions?

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Remote Control needs live key events from the desktop session. Compose Text only proves the text-send path is working.

Remote Control may be reporting a hardware keyboard to Android, which keeps the soft IME hidden. From a Waydroid shell try:

settings put secure show_ime_with_hard_keyboard 1

Then stop/start the Waydroid session and reopen Remote Control. Also check Settings > System > Languages & input that tt9 is enabled as an on-screen keyboard.

I’d still test the same KDE Connect pair from a Plasma X11 login. If the keyboard appears there, the Wayland/Weston input path is the limit. On Plasma Wayland I’d use Compose Text or scrcpy for direct Waydroid input.

3

Thx for the reply.

settings put secure show_ime_with_hard_keyboard 1

Did not work (keyboard still hidden). Checked the settings. tt9 is enabled and also works for text input in other apps installed in Waydroid.

I specifically need the direction: tt9 in Waydroid → Kubuntu so X11 or srcpy does not help because that would be for the other direction: keyboard in Kubuntu → Waydroid/Android.