[Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie

pjft

I have had the need for that myself, exactly for non connected devices or when I just don't want to get a keyboard out but need to enter some metadata text.

There's not a single dirty word in what you said. I think it's great that others also develop EmulationStation in different ways!

I don't think there's anyone working on that directly for our version. If the original developer would want to submit that code as a PR to our fork, I imagine it'd be more than appreciated.

Anything other than that would effectively mean that it needs to be developed from scratch, or someone would copy that code here, though that is far from ideal from a development and maintenance standpoint, not to mention that "coming code" without involving the author is somewhat against the spirit of open source.

So we're kind of in a conundrum, for the time being.

There's nobody working on this at least for the time being, and I'm not sure it's on anyone's radar.

EctoOne

There is an old version that apparently had that feature. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3121/emulationstation-mod

pjft

@EctoOne a mod is not an official version. I suppose what you mean is "there's a version with it based on an old release of ES". :)

BenMcLean

@cyperghost said in [Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie:

@BenMcLean That isn't true - you can import WIFI settings with wifikeyfile. You always have native access to /boot partition with any OS. So there is no need for keyboard input.

I guess most people's autism power level is not high enough to know about that. What is that and how does it help me get on the wifi at my friend's house which I didn't know about ahead of time without a keyboard or an ethernet cable?

BuZz

@benmclean said in [Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie:

I guess most people's autism power level is not high enough to know about that.

What is that supposed to mean ? This is in the documentation btw.

BenMcLean

@buzz said in [Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie:

@benmclean said in [Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie:

I guess most people's autism power level is not high enough to know about that.

What is that supposed to mean ? This is in the documentation btw.

I'm pretty sure what's in the documentation does not do what I said.

herb_fargus

@benmclean then you did it wrong.

cyperghost

@benmclean The feature of key import was introduced here and the bash version is able to append several keys to the wifi setup ....

Or you can edit manually whatever you want or willing to do

mediamogul

@benmclean

What is that and how does it help me get on the wifi at my friend's house which I didn't know about ahead of time without a keyboard or an ethernet cable?

OSK merits aside, It's not that difficult to prepare for this type of situation. I have an extremely small bag that I use to transport my Raspberry Pi when I travel and I always pack two controllers, a retractable Ethernet cable and a keyboard/Airmouse/Learning Remote combo device that's the size of a small remote control. This, along with a pre-installed browser for openWifi authentication handles just about any problem your likely to run into with a very small footprint of space.

BenMcLean

@mediamogul said in [Feature Request] On-Screen Keyboard on RetroPie:

@benmclean

What is that and how does it help me get on the wifi at my friend's house which I didn't know about ahead of time without a keyboard or an ethernet cable?

OSK merits aside, It's not that difficult to prepare for this type of situation. I have an extremely small bag that I use to transport my Raspberry Pi when I travel and I always pack two controllers, a retractable Ethernet cable and a keyboard/Airmouse/Learning Remote combo device that's the size of a small remote control. This, along with a pre-installed browser for openWifi authentication handles just about any problem your likely to run into with a very small footprint of space.

Oh, I attempted to solve this by getting an XBox 360 Chatpad for my XBox 360 wireless controller, but that didn't work due to RetroPie using old drivers. I plan to run a test with the newer patched driver soon but in the meantime, can you recommend a good specific airmouse / tiny keyboard device such as you mentioned? I think that would be worth getting generally even if I wasn't using it for Raspberry PI stuff.

mediamogul

@benmclean

The old standby that everyone always recommends for the Pi is this one. I've used it myself in the past and it always seemed to work well. Currently, I use an iPazzPort model that eliminates the trackpad for an airmouse, making it even more compact, but currently it doesn't appear to be available anywhere.