RFE: Automatically release mdifier after a certain delay

[Francesco Fumanti]

Onboard got the following request in a question; I am filing it here so we do not forget to consider whether we should implement it. And now, the text of the question with the request:

Is it possible to reset some of the keys such as SHIFT, CAPSLOCK, ALT GR, so that they are at a default setting after some predetermined amount of time when the keyboard is not in use?

This seemed like an interesting scenario which would appear useful for a kiosk type of setup, or maybe someone undecided about what to type, or maybe someone that left the screen for some time, and came back to reuse the keyboard. Basically, reset the keyboard to a default state after some amount of time of inactivity.

This question came-up in the Mandriva forums - http://forum.mandriva.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=136139 and it seemed the best place to have this solved is upstream at the source "Onboard".

[marmuta (marmuta)]

I have added a couple of options for kiosk mode that I believe cover this bug.
Check out apps.onboard.lockdown in gsettings. There is an option to disable locked state for modifiers and one to reset modifiers and layer keys after a delay. There is no gui and probably won't be, you'd have to use gconf-editor or the command line to set them. For example

gsettings set apps.onboard.lockdown release-modifiers-delay 10.0

would reset latched and locked modifers after 10 seconds of no key press.

Check it out and let me know if it suits the purpose.
What do you think Francesco?

[marmuta (marmuta)]

> you'd have to use gconf-editor or the command line to set them.
Uh...and by gconf-editor I meant dconf-editor

[Piotr Mackowiak (mackowiakp)]

How can I download RPM for my Mandriva based PC with bug fixed?

[marmuta (marmuta)]

We don't provide RPMs unfortunately, only debian packages are supported currently. You may want to try building Onboard from source though. You can get the source with

bzr branch lp:onboard

To be able to build and run it, you'd need to install a couple of dependencies. Here is the list of required (debian) packages from debian/rules, Mandrive should have those, but you may find them under different names:

python (>= 2.6.6-3~),
python-distutils-extra (>= 2.10),
python-all-dev,
libgtk-3-dev,
libxi-dev,
libxtst-dev

python-cairo,
python-dbus,
python-virtkey (>= 0.60.0),
gir1.2-gtk-3.0,
gir1.2-pango-1.0 (>= 1.29.3),
gir1.2-glib-2.0,
gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0,
libgtk-3-0,
libxi6,
libxtst6

Once you have that, cd into the source directory
$ cd onboard

then build and install onboard with
$ sudo python setup.py install --prefix=/usr
(replace sudo with your preferred method to become root)

finally Onboard's gsettings schema needs to be compiled with
$ sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Then you should be able to run it with 'onboard'.

[Piotr Mackowiak (mackowiakp)]

OK. is any possibility to automatically turn-off onboard after desired period of inactivity time? I have a problem that sometimes the screen saver does not starts automaticaly is onboard is active.

[Piotr Mackowiak (mackowiakp)]

I can not compile onboard module needed python-distutils-extra. I use syntax:
python setup.py install --prefix=/usr in python-distutils-extra-2.30 subdir. The error warning is
File "setup.py", line 3 in <module>
from setuptools import setup
ImportError: No module named setuptools

But I have setuptools installed ie python 2.4-setuptools is present in my system

What the problem is? Any help. I am new in portebling debian apps to Mandriva :-(

[marmuta (marmuta)]

Isn't there a more generic package python-setuptools or similar? Otherwise you'd probably need to find a matching setuptools for your python version. Mind you, you'd need at least python 2.6 for onboard. This should show your python version:
python -V

There is no way to turn onboard off after a delay, sorry. You can tell it to become transparent after a configurable time of inactivity though. Check out preferences->window, once you got onboard to build. Although I wonder why onboard would stop the screen-saver from appearing. I can't imagine why that would happen. Are you sure it's onboard causing this?

Is this Mandriva 2011? 64bit?

[marmuta (marmuta)]

Piotr, here is how to build Onboard on Mandriva 2011, 64bit:

$ sudo urpmi bzr python-distutils-extra python-devel lib64gtk+2.0-devel lib64gtk+3.0-devel lib64xtst-devel intltool dconf dconf-editor

$ wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.7/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg
$ sudo sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg

$ bzr branch lp:onboard
$ bzr branch lp:python-distutils-extra
$ bzr branch lp:virtkey

$ cd python-distutils-extra/
$ sudo python setup.py install
$ cd ..

$ cd virtkey
$ sudo python setup.py install
$ cd ..

$ cd onboard
$ sudo python setup.py install

$ sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

You should then be able to run "onboard" and "onboard-settings".
The screen-saver works here when Onboard is running,
Let me know how it goes.

[Piotr Mackowiak (mackowiakp)]

Sorry for big delay but it was because of my health problems. But now Im in "on-line".
So. Basicly I want to install onboard on 32 bit Mandriva in kisk mode. It is because some apps does not work properly in 64 bit version. Why OnBoard "blocks" screesaver automatuc turnin-on - it is big mistery. Maybe OnBoard generates something by itself (null characters or somethink).
Have You any HOWTO for 32 bit based Mandriva?

[Piotr Mackowiak (mackowiakp)]

Probably I know how can You reproduce screensaver issue. Just click on <ALT Gr> and leave cursor on <Alt Gr> key. In my case screensaver does not turn-on itself.