Keyboard shown on SDDM login screen with elarun theme

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1

Until 15.3 I used KDM as display manager. In 15.3 it is gone and I had to fall back to SDDM (and to trick the configuration to get more or less what I want).

Playing a bit in KDE > System Settings > Startup and Shutdown, I saw that SDDM is themeable and that the elarun theme looks more like I was used to in KDM. Thus I tried it.

But now on login after I see in a flash the login screen, a keyboard is shown on the screen. I can remove it by clicking on a keyboard-icon low-right and then see and use the normal login.

Why is that keyboard shown? And can it be avoided to be shown?

2

Hi Henk,

I got curious. Thanks, that was an interesting quest! :slight_smile:

I switched to Elarun and found the same. Checked config at the “usual” places. There’s “/usr/share/sddm/themes/elarun/” where you can find several files including a “theme.conf” and “theme.conf.user”. Unfortunately there’s no hint of what setting should be added.
Searched a bit more:
SDDM - ArchWiki
Apparently it’s “qt5-virtualkeyboard”. Unfortunately the only setting mentioned is how to enable it:

/etc/sddm.conf.d/virtualkbd.conf
[General] 
InputMethod=qtvirtualkeyboard

Eventually removing qt5-virtualkeyboard does the trick. I used YaST. There’s a dependency. /var/log/zypp/history shows:

2022-01-27 22:27:43|command|root@pluto|'/usr/bin/ruby.ruby2.5' '--encoding=utf-8' '/usr/lib/YaST2/bin/y2start' 'sw_single' 'qt' '-name' 'YaST2' '-icon' 'yast'|
2022-01-27 22:27:43|remove |libqt5-qtvirtualkeyboard-hunspell|5.12.7-bp153.1.17|x86_64|root@pluto|
2022-01-27 22:27:43|remove |libqt5-qtvirtualkeyboard|5.12.7-bp153.1.17|x86_64|root@pluto|
2022-01-27 22:27:43|remove |libQt5HunspellInputMethod5|5.12.7-bp153.1.17|x86_64|root@pluto|
2022-01-27 22:27:43|remove |libQt5VirtualKeyboard5|5.12.7-bp153.1.17|x86_64|root@pluto|
3

Forgot to mention: Of course this only helps if you don’t want to use a(ny) virtual keyboard in KDE.

4

Thanks for that. I will come back to this tomorrow. While you show it it can be removed (and I will certainly try that) the whole does not help me in understanding the why, the purpose, or in short: who might want to have this and what for?

5

Yep, I avoided that question as I have no idea. I assume it’s down to the guys who wrote that theme but I have to admit I couldn’t find (and honestly didn’t bother to search longer for) more details. Maybe it’s aiming at touchscreen support? Just guessing…

6

So… the setting must be in “Main.qml” as one can see comparing it with the breeze “Main.qml” file. There’s a sequence how the virtual keyboard shall behave depending if a keyboard is connected etc. As a default it is “hidden”. But there’s no such sequence in the elarun settings which is importing a different version of “QtQuick” and in total fewer libs.
Now that’s way over my head. Have been trying around but to no avail. Just copying the breeze file to the elarun folder does not work. (Good idea to alway keep a copy of the original files.) :wink: Shall go to bed, now.

7

When KDM4 got dropped I switched to KDM3 or TDM on most of my KDE installations. I have the keyboard on SDDM screen on at least one installation where I allowed SDDM, which is annoying, like all DMs except [K/T]DM. I still have KDM4 on some Fedora installations. Apparently somebody is still maintaining it and its deps there. :slight_smile:

I like Elarun too! It’s so much better than Breeze, a night vs. day difference.

8

Let me begin to say that it is not of very great importance to me. I only type the password on the login screen and as long as long does not show a list of users I am satisfied. The rest is all cosmetics.

Looking a bit around, I saw the configuration screen and the elarun team was showing much more like what I have on my desktop, thus I though I should try it. I should have known better. Once one has made the minimal changes one needs to the KDE desktop, one should never touch it again.

Also I seem to believe that a “theme” is only another style of showing the cosmetics of the same elements that make out the functionality, but that is also naive, it seems to be able to change an interface also in it’s basic elements. I had some earlier experience with this, but was really hit by the fact that there was no login screen, but a near copy of what I have before my eyes, the keyboard. I still do not understand, despite the efforts put into it by some of you above, why somebody “invented” this. I ask for a GUI login screen and get the image of a keyboard :embarrassed: . I really do not get it.

I am back at my old login screen again. There is too much fuss needed to get the other one appearing. Sorry for bothering you with this dead alley.

9

To be clear, kdebase3-kdm is still in the repos for 15.3 and TW, and it’s working as always just the same.

10

Good to know. Maybe I will give it a chance. Thanks.