Pro1X, Physical keyboard layout issues [Fixed, other software interfering]

[Tell-Son 6]

17 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

That they worked initially is a good sign, so most likely you can avoid the full reset.

I agree with @Hook's suggestion, but start with any app that is mentioned as active under Accessibility - or just switch its rights off under accessibility. And if that does not do it, focus on anything keyboard-related, or 'fancy', the more complex the larger the risk of it trying to be clever and mess of stuff.

You could try to just STOP rather than uninstall stuff first, with the risk of them being brought back to live, making tests harder. A reboot often restarts a lot of junk you may have stopped - thanks Android.... 🤢

You MIGHT need to do a reboot after uninstalling some stuff, to see the effect.

Note on the first thing, if you did a Google restore of apps this MIGHT take quite a while, so you could have seen the keys working before some settings messed things up.

Good hunting - and please report back when you narrow down the culprit.

Sometimes in life you are a lucky guy, and the problem-app begins with an "A". Anydesk was the influencer in my case. I did not even had to uninstall it.  Just removed all the rights in the special-rights chapter.  And my physical keyboard is giving me the proper values again.

Thanks to all !

[EskeRahn 5,464]

1 hour ago, Tell-Son said:

Sometimes in life you are a lucky guy, and the problem-app begins with an "A". Anydesk was the influencer in my case. I did not even had to uninstall it.  Just removed all the rights in the special-rights chapter.  And my physical keyboard is giving me the proper values again.

Thanks to all !

Great, lucky you that it was not zx browser.... 🤣

[xhajt03 27]

Slightly related - I had issues with FxService effectively disabling FinQwerty layouts on my Pro1x (only the default layouts worked correctly, FinQwerty layouts behaved as if I had the default stock QWERTY selected). I reported the issue to @Slion (the author of FxService), but he probably couldn't have analyzed it in detail due to only having Pro1 and not Pro1x.

[VaZso 1,998]

4 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

Slightly related - I had issues with FxService effectively disabling FinQwerty layouts on my Pro1x (only the default layouts worked correctly, FinQwerty layouts behaved as if I had the default stock QWERTY selected). I reported the issue to @Slion (the author of FxService), but he probably couldn't have analyzed it in detail due to only having Pro1 and not Pro1x.

I have recently ran into a similar issue on my Pro1.
I have installed AnyDesk which has installed a service and I had no FinQwerty-like layouts working until I have found that application was the cause of my issue and disabled its service.

(Pro1, LineageOS 18.1 here.)

[Rob. S. 1,663]

On 8/18/2022 at 2:39 PM, Rob. S. said:

QWERTZ with 'Physical Keyboard' set to 'German' indeed generally works. Although there are two bugs in the layout which make both the accent grave or backtick < ` > and the apostrophe < ' > unavailable [...]

The FinQuerty app which now also has layouts for the Pro1 X (thanks to @EskeRahn for mentioning this), fixes this issue with the "FinQuerty F(x)tec Pro1 X, German for physical DE QWERTZ" layout. Excellent.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Rob. S.

[Craig 1,435]

Semicolon to the right of L sounds like standard qwerty layout to me.  If using US layout, I would expect shift + slash to give me a question mark.  

[Craig 1,435]

I just tried Pro¹-x for the first time today.  I have tried lots of things and cannot get pipe or backslash to come out of this keyboard, with layout set to both US and unset to default.   

Google Assistant has no accessbility permission.  The only thing that has accessibility permission is kde connect.

In any case, even tho the keys aren't printed right, semi colon and question mark are exactly where they should be for US layout.   

I think I'm gunna keymapper to turn Del to KEYCODE_BACKSLASH (and thus shift+del = pipe), and shift backspace to del and just avoid figuring out what weird thing fxtec did this time.   I will only use pipe when doing shell stuff and backslash only if i use dosbox, but slash, semnicolon, and question mark are part of normal English and I'm glad they work where they are already anyway.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Craig

[EskeRahn 5,464]

3 hours ago, Craig said:

I just tried Pro¹-x for the first time today.  I have tried lots of things and cannot get pipe or backslash to come out of this keyboard, with layout set to both US and unset to default

Did you try FinQwerty? It now also has layouts for Pro1X.

[Craig 1,435]

2 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Did you try FinQwerty? It now also has layouts for Pro1X.

I did not.  I used Keymapper to assign keycode_backslash to delete key (which makes shift+"del" work automatically for pipe) and set shift+backspace to keycode_forward_delete.  So this particular issue is worked-around for me, even tho I could never make it work FxTec's way.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Craig

[EskeRahn 5,464]

6 minutes ago, Craig said:

I did not.  I used Keymapper to assign keycode_backslash to delete key (which makes shift+"del" work automatically for pipe) and set shift+backspace to keycode_forward_delete.  So this particular issue is worked-around for me, even tho I could never make it work FxTec's way.

Have a look here: https://android.onse.fi/finqwerty/#pro1x

"English US" (no finqwerty) also includes them

 

 

[Rob. S. 1,663]

Is there any way to make the stylized F-key NOT hide the active app on key release?

Theoretically, I get all the special characters I need on my QWERTY Pro1 X (recently replaced my QWERTZ Pro1 X with one) by using FinQwerty with the "U.S. intl. with dead keys for physical US QWERTY" layout for the Pro1. Its dead keys are entered with the F-key, though, and while that does work, the F-key also hides the active app on release, each and every time I enter any such character with it...

I have no idea what the F-key is actually doing there; I guess it somehow acts as the search key, but it doesn't really do what I find displyed in Settings -> System -> Languages and input -> Physical keyboard -> Keyboard shortcuts, either.

(I have no "Android Assistant" installed; I have also disabled "Google Assistant", which is to what the search key by itself is mapped according to that shortcuts overview.)

Edited March 11, 2023 by Rob. S.
realized that I was using a layout for the Pro1, not Pro1X

[Sean McCreary 328]

2 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

Is there any way to make the stylized F-key NOT hide the active app on key release?

It does this because F(x)tec makes the key generate KEY_HOMEPAGE. The fix is to change this in the kernel source, e.g. https://github.com/LineageOS/android_kernel_fxtec_sm6115/commit/41b535243dce9e057069adda494cbbaf8c720f35

[Rob. S. 1,663]

1 hour ago, Sean McCreary said:

It does this because F(x)tec makes the key generate KEY_HOMEPAGE. The fix is to change this in the kernel source, e.g. https://github.com/LineageOS/android_kernel_fxtec_sm6115/commit/41b535243dce9e057069adda494cbbaf8c720f35

Thanks! Just noticed that the FinQuerty layout I had chosen was for the Pro1, not Pro1X... 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Rob. S.

[Rob. S. 1,663]

Made me try the "U.S. intl. with Fn dead keys for physical US QWERTY" right now, which uses the arrow keys instead. Works like a charm—except that the question mark is missing (prints the semicolon instead)... 

[Rob. S. 1,663]

The question mark is there, it's Alt-L! I completely overlooked that there is a fifth layer in that layout with the Alt key modifier, even if only a few keys are assigned there, and I only noticed it browsing through the .kcm files from github...

Even though these FinQwerty layouts were originally designed for the Pro1 with it's "shifted" physical QWERTY layout, they are still quite functional on the Pro1 X as they're overlays for actual keys like A or LEFT_BRACKET, not for lower-level keycodes. 

There may still be some more minor differences to how it used to work on the Pro1 (see above),  but the good thing is, as long as we can remember to use Alt-L for '?' and ? for ';', we have a working US intl. keyboard layout for the QWERTY Pro1 X with an extreme wealth of special and international characters! 🙂 

[QuestionMark 0]

Hello - I have one of the original Pro1 devices.  There are 3 keys on the physical keyboard that do not work:

1)  the question mark character, which should be Fn+L, never yields a question mark.

2) the slash character, which should be Fn+P, never yields a slash.

3) lastly, in my tasks app, the spacebar causes pagedown behavior.  It works properly everywhere else.  I've spoken with the developer, who is US English, so written for that market.  There is no special key mapping in the app and it does not exhibit this behavior on ANY other device, just the Pro1.

I am NOT using a keymapper.  I am running the vanilla android that came on the device.  Device was ordered for US English and physical keyboard is set to "English (US)".  I've also tried English (international).  Neither works. 

What is needed to fix this (question mark)  Please help !

[Hook 3,031]

1 hour ago, QuestionMark said:

Hello - I have one of the original Pro1 devices.  There are 3 keys on the physical keyboard that do not work:

1)  the question mark character, which should be Fn+L, never yields a question mark.

2) the slash character, which should be Fn+P, never yields a slash.

3) lastly, in my tasks app, the spacebar causes pagedown behavior.  It works properly everywhere else.  I've spoken with the developer, who is US English, so written for that market.  There is no special key mapping in the app and it does not exhibit this behavior on ANY other device, just the Pro1.

I am NOT using a keymapper.  I am running the vanilla android that came on the device.  Device was ordered for US English and physical keyboard is set to "English (US)".  I've also tried English (international).  Neither works. 

What is needed to fix this (question mark)  Please help !

If you are using stock, unselect US English for the Physical keyboard and select "default" and you will get  ? and / back.

The spacebar behaviior in one app I have no explanation for.

You might also investigate Finqwerty for an even better experience.

[QuestionMark 0]

Thank you so o o  much, Hook. 

Unselecting English and using Default works perfectly, all special characters render as they should (see below).  There is an annoying reminder that pops now and then from Android about setting up the physical keyboard, which is likely why US English got selected in the first place.  I'll happily ignore it from now on! 

 1! 2@ 3# 4$ 5% 6^ 7& 8* 9( 0) -_ =+ `~ pP/ ;: \| lL/  ' " [{ ]} ,< .>

[QuestionMark 0]

Also, I did try selecting Finnish as the keyboard language, but then the slash / and question mark ? characters do not work.  And I use them all the time.  So I happily keep it set to Default.

[Hook 3,031]

1 hour ago, QuestionMark said:

Also, I did try selecting Finnish as the keyboard language, but then the slash / and question mark ? characters do not work.  And I use them all the time.  So I happily keep it set to Default.

Sorry, no, I meant an app in the play store called "Finqwerty" (the developer is Finnish) that gives you alternative key mappings for the Pro1 hardware keyboard.

https://android.onse.fi/finqwerty/#pro1

It's free and the "US for Physical Qwerty" is wonderful.  One of the things it does is allow you to use shift for almost all the yellow characters except ? and /, which have to be left on the L and the P keys and require the arrow key because it is more or less hard wired.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.onse.qwerty.finnish

 

EDIT to add:  Finqwerty is not truly an app-- it just makes additional Physical Keyboard layouts available to Android.  Finqwerty itself is not doing anything or running any processes.

 

[david 929]

I just unboxed my Pro1X.  The first thing I did, even before turning it on, was to type on the keyboard.  I immediately noticed that they changed the keyboard layout from the Pro1!!! 

Why in the world did they do this?  I have a QWERTY English model for both phone versions.  Why would they change the layout that existing customers already got used to touch typing on?  Anyone know?

Oh, and this isn't just rare keys being moved around.  The alphabetic keys have been shifted to the left, and symbols that were to the left of the alphabetic keys on the Pro1 have been moved to the right side of the alphabetic keys.  So it isn't possible to touch type on the new phone without my hands and brain relearning the positions.

Edited May 28, 2023 by david

[Hook 3,031]

2 hours ago, david said:

I just unboxed my Pro1X.  The first thing I did, even before turning it on, was to type on the keyboard.  I immediately noticed that they changed the keyboard layout from the Pro1!!! 

Why in the world did they do this?  I have a QWERTY English model for both phone versions.  Why would they change the layout that existing customers already got used to touch typing on?  Anyone know?

Oh, and this isn't just rare keys being moved around.  The alphabetic keys have been shifted to the left, and symbols that were to the left of the alphabetic keys on the Pro1 have been moved to the right side of the alphabetic keys.  So it isn't possible to touch type on the new phone without my hands and brain relearning the positions.

Well, I am much happier  with non-shifted, but I'm most grateful for not requiring the arrow key (Fn) to type ? and /, although I would have preferred ? and / to be on the same key, and  ; and : to be on the same key and pipe to be on the L key (I'm a writer, not a programmer-- I never use pipe 😄 ).  But, all-in-all I much prefer the Pro1x keyboard (it also feels better to me than the Pro1 keyboard.)

[Rob. S. 1,663]

On 5/28/2023 at 2:08 AM, david said:

Why in the world did they do this? 

Because buyers and prospective buyers complained, as the 'original' QWERTY layout was actually a shifted, non-standard layout many found less easy to type on than if it would have been non-shifted. Some who would normally have preferred QWERTY over QWERTZ even chose QWERTZ because of it. It's actually one of the few "manufacturer listened to customers" aspects of the Pro1X. To be honest, I couldn't think of any other reason than already being familiar with the shifted layout to prefer it over the non-shifted one, and while I'm a fervent opponent against change just for change's sake, I think the new layout's advantages might beat that one disadvantage. Especially for those who never had a Pro1...

Then again all of that is easy to say for me as I went from a (non-shifted) QWERTZ Pro1 to a QWERTY Pro1X 😉 

[EskeRahn 5,464]

1 hour ago, Rob. S. said:

Some who would normally have preferred QWERTY over QWERTZ even chose QWERTZ because of it

I for one. I tried to fight hard against the shifted layout early on, but unfortunately the Pro1 had it...
One mayor issue with the shifted qwerty is that many languages usually got letters right of L and P, and this becomes a mess of awkward positions with the shifted.

If you are using A-Z only the shift is just a bad idea, not a nuisance in daily usage.

But quite a bit on it here: https://eskerahn.dk/?p=3556#ShiftedOrNot

So glad to see that they fixed it for the Pro1X

[david 929]

5 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

Because buyers and prospective buyers complained, as the 'original' QWERTY layout was actually a shifted, non-standard layout many found less easy to type on than if it would have been non-shifted. Some who would normally have preferred QWERTY over QWERTZ even chose QWERTZ because of it. It's actually one of the few "manufacturer listened to customers" aspects of the Pro1X. To be honest, I couldn't think of any other reason than already being familiar with the shifted layout to prefer it over the non-shifted one, and while I'm a fervent opponent against change just for change's sake, I think the new layout's advantages might beat that one disadvantage. Especially for those who never had a Pro1...

Then again all of that is easy to say for me as I went from a (non-shifted) QWERTZ Pro1 to a QWERTY Pro1X 😉 

I was probably one of those who complained about the shifted layout of the pro1, because it required my brain and thumbs to be rewired vs my previous phone keyboard.  But I have to believe a lot of pro1x buyers were pro1 owners.  At that point, I wouldn't have switched the keyboard layout, because people are already used to the old layout. 

Maybe there are fewer touch typers out there than i thought.  If people are looking at the keys and typing slow, then it probably wouldn't bother them.  It is what it is, but it is going to take some time for my brain to switch, and I won't be able to go back and forth between the two phones.  This may be a moot point if I can't find another usb pcb board for the pro1, though.  And really a moot point (down the line) if fxtec doesn't end up stocking parts for the pro1x.  One of the big selling points of these phones was the belief we would be able to get replacement parts on into the future.  That doesn't seem to have ended up being reality.