Has anyone switched to the userspace keyboard driver on Manjaro ARM?

[tmczar]

Same here. It seems that ppkb-i2c-inputd just broke in newest update

[hollerpots]

Same here. Last update really borked things... again. That's two updates in a row that left @Hook and I scratching our heads.

Ready to test if anyone finds more info. I'll keep digging too, but I don't know the kernel level stuff well.

[undata]

Okay, here is what finally worked for me.  I started with MajaroArm with all updates.  I also installed from the software app (Phosh) pinephone-keyboard-git and pinephone-toolkit-git, which may have helped.  I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned. Whatever, it already existed at the proper location when I started this.



Here are all of the exact steps I took:

1. Create systemd file

  a. Navigate  to /etc/systemd/system

  b. sudo nano keeb2.service (use whatever name you like before the ".service")

  c.In file, type:

 

  [Unit]
  Description=PinePhone keyboard userspace daemon
 
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/ppkb-i2c-inputd
 
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
 
 
d. Save and exit Nano

 
2. Enable service for next boot

  a. Run: sudo systemctl enable keeb2.service


3. Set up boot.txt file to disable kb151

  a. cd /boot

  b. sudo nano boot.txt

  c. Type kb151.disable_input at the end of setenev bootargs line (there should be one space between last parameter in the line and this addition).

  d. save and close.


4. Create the new boot.scr from the boot.txt file to apply disabling kb151 at next boot.

  a. Run: /usr/bin/pp-uboot-mkscr

 

5. Reboot

This worked for me with MajaroArm. I have F1-F10 working with the pine key, and Fn-num keys actually type what is printed on the lower part of the keys.

I potched this together from different sources, (the link in the first post and the very helpful comments in this thread) and a lot of exploring to see where files were actually located and if I had them.  Many thanks to @Megamemnon and @neil_swan80, as well as another not on this forum.  And, of course, thanks to the ManjaroArm devs.

Hope this helps someone else.

It didn't work for me. No offense, but you started out saying "I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned." You followed that by saying "Here are all of the exact steps I took:" How is it possible that those were ALL of the exact steps as listed, if you weren't sure whether previous steps had any impact?

[Hook]

Okay, here is what finally worked for me.  I started with MajaroArm with all updates.  I also installed from the software app (Phosh) pinephone-keyboard-git and pinephone-toolkit-git, which may have helped.  I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned. Whatever, it already existed at the proper location when I started this.



Here are all of the exact steps I took:

1. Create systemd file

  a. Navigate  to /etc/systemd/system

  b. sudo nano keeb2.service (use whatever name you like before the ".service")

  c.In file, type:

 

  [Unit]
  Description=PinePhone keyboard userspace daemon
 
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/ppkb-i2c-inputd
 
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
 
 
d. Save and exit Nano

 
2. Enable service for next boot

  a. Run: sudo systemctl enable keeb2.service


3. Set up boot.txt file to disable kb151

  a. cd /boot

  b. sudo nano boot.txt

  c. Type kb151.disable_input at the end of setenev bootargs line (there should be one space between last parameter in the line and this addition).

  d. save and close.


4. Create the new boot.scr from the boot.txt file to apply disabling kb151 at next boot.

  a. Run: /usr/bin/pp-uboot-mkscr

 

5. Reboot

This worked for me with MajaroArm. I have F1-F10 working with the pine key, and Fn-num keys actually type what is printed on the lower part of the keys.

I potched this together from different sources, (the link in the first post and the very helpful comments in this thread) and a lot of exploring to see where files were actually located and if I had them.  Many thanks to @Megamemnon and @neil_swan80, as well as another not on this forum.  And, of course, thanks to the ManjaroArm devs.

Hope this helps someone else.

It didn't work for me. No offense, but you started out saying "I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned." You followed that by saying "Here are all of the exact steps I took:" How is it possible that those were ALL of the exact steps as listed, if you weren't sure whether previous steps had any impact?

Okay. Well, nearly a year later, as you probably can tell if you read the whole thread, it kept breaking, so not all that surprising it didn't work for you. I gave up.  I no longer have a Pinephone  or keyboard case, so it's all kind of moot.  Lol.

[undata]

Okay, here is what finally worked for me.  I started with MajaroArm with all updates.  I also installed from the software app (Phosh) pinephone-keyboard-git and pinephone-toolkit-git, which may have helped.  I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned. Whatever, it already existed at the proper location when I started this.



Here are all of the exact steps I took:

1. Create systemd file

  a. Navigate  to /etc/systemd/system

  b. sudo nano keeb2.service (use whatever name you like before the ".service")

  c.In file, type:

 

  [Unit]
  Description=PinePhone keyboard userspace daemon
 
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/ppkb-i2c-inputd
 
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
 
 
d. Save and exit Nano

 
2. Enable service for next boot

  a. Run: sudo systemctl enable keeb2.service


3. Set up boot.txt file to disable kb151

  a. cd /boot

  b. sudo nano boot.txt

  c. Type kb151.disable_input at the end of setenev bootargs line (there should be one space between last parameter in the line and this addition).

  d. save and close.


4. Create the new boot.scr from the boot.txt file to apply disabling kb151 at next boot.

  a. Run: /usr/bin/pp-uboot-mkscr

 

5. Reboot

This worked for me with MajaroArm. I have F1-F10 working with the pine key, and Fn-num keys actually type what is printed on the lower part of the keys.

I potched this together from different sources, (the link in the first post and the very helpful comments in this thread) and a lot of exploring to see where files were actually located and if I had them.  Many thanks to @Megamemnon and @neil_swan80, as well as another not on this forum.  And, of course, thanks to the ManjaroArm devs.

Hope this helps someone else.

It didn't work for me. No offense, but you started out saying "I did not have to do any building of the userland driver, so an update may have already provided it, or maybe one of the git files I mentioned." You followed that by saying "Here are all of the exact steps I took:" How is it possible that those were ALL of the exact steps as listed, if you weren't sure whether previous steps had any impact?

Okay. Well, nearly a year later, as you probably can tell if you read the whole thread, it kept breaking, so not all that surprising it didn't work for you. I gave up.  I no longer have a Pinephone  or keyboard case, so it's all kind of moot.  Lol.

You're right. Still, I have solved this frustrating problem. Using only gsettings. I will share my work, if anybody cares about the details. I just bought the keyboard in 2023. Had I known the problem I wouldn't have bought it. But after a lot of extremely tedious work, here it is (link to photographic evidence):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12wBDZ9M...sp=sharing

[Ephraimbogan]

I admit to being a noob.  I am pretty good at researching before asking a question, and I follow directions well, but I am limited in my ability to troubleshoot on my own. 

Has anyone on Manjaro (Phosh, but that shouldn't matter) switched to the userspace driver (ppkb-i2c) for the keyboard case?  If so, can you post how you did it?

I was hoping maybe I could just use the instructions for Arch starting at step 3:

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16156

Unfortunately, I can't even get out the  gate because Manjaro Arm does  not seem to have a mkscr command (The boot.txt file says at the top to run "pp-uboot-mkscr" but that fails to with a "command not found" message. and there is no ".scr" file with a similar name on the boot directory).  There is a boot.scr file in the boot directory, and, yes, I am in that directory when issuing the commands.

Any help from someone using Manjaro Arm would be appreciated.

TIA

Does the file:
/boot/mkscr
exist?  It should be with the files '/boot/boot.txt' and '/boot/boot.scr'
And is it executable (-rwxr-xr-x) ?

to list the files and their permissions in the '/boot' directory:
cd /boot
ls -l

If it doesn't exist, manually create it:
sudo nano /boot/mkscr