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On OSX you can have an onscreen keyboard shown (Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources > mark "Keyboard & Character Viewer". You'll then have a new icon in the menu bar with the item "Show Keyboard Viewer")

From time to time I find this useful to figure out which modifier key to press to get a certain character, as the online keyboard changes when you press modifier keys (alt, ctrl, etc.). The latter is critical for me.

Is there something similar on Ubuntu?

enter image description here

Rabarberski
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    No answers here answer the question. The virtual keyboards are not substitutes of keyboard viewers because they can conflict with your current keyboard settings, while keyboard viewer not. Another thread about the topic here https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/382987/16920 – Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 Aug 01 '17 at 19:35

5 Answers5

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Onboard is installed by default, not sure if it is exactly what you are looking for but it is an option.enter image description here

TheXed
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    Was promising as it was available by default. Unfortunately, the keys don't change when pressing a modifier key on my real physical keyboard – Rabarberski Sep 04 '11 at 08:21
  • Bummer sorry this won't help then. – TheXed Sep 05 '11 at 02:59
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    By accident +1, but really -1. The OP wants virtual keyboard viewer, not virtual keyboard. This software caused my system to restart because misconfigured the keyboard, although I closed the app. – Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 Aug 01 '17 at 19:23
  • You just down voted a 6 year old answer. kudos to you. – TheXed Aug 01 '17 at 19:24
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    @TheXed Time does not matter because the answers are here completely wrong. The OP wants keyboard viewer, not virtual keyboard. Your solution causes serious problems in many settings so should not be used for the task. - - I upvoted you by accident, but it should be down vote so comment for it. – Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 Aug 01 '17 at 19:38
  • So did you provide another solution in the form of an answer so we can all up vote you? I would gladly do so if you do. – TheXed Aug 01 '17 at 19:40
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    @TheXed Another thread about the topic https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/382987/16920 – Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 Aug 02 '17 at 04:43
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xvkbd is an option... http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/xvkbd

xvkbd is a virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System which provides facility to enter characters onto other clients (softwares) by clicking on a keyboard displayed on the screen. This may be used for systems without a hardware keyboard such as kiosk terminals or handheld devices. This program also has facility to send characters specified as the command line option to another client.

enter image description here Illustration is from the net.

The same as matchbox-keyboard-im

Matchbox-keyboard is an on-screen 'virtual' or 'software' keyboard, designed for touch-screen devices running X.

Matchbox is a base environment for the X Window System running on non-desktop embedded platforms such as handhelds, set-top boxes, kiosks and anything else for which screen space, input mechanisms or system resources are limited.

This package provides a GTK+ input module for use with Matchbox-keyboard or other on-screen keyboards.

enter image description here

Illustration is from the net

Both they are in my repositories on Natty but further information can be reached on the official websites.

I remember to have used one of these when installed Jaunty on a Touch Screen HP Laptop, and can inform that it works pretty fine.

I hope this help.

Good luck!

Geppettvs D'Constanzo
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I don't know where Ubuntu package for this is exactly, but Gnome (specifically Gnome-Shell) has a standard UI component for this that suits your requirements exactly.

It is usually accessed through the panel keyboard layout widget, but if it exists on the system you can call it directly from any DE, including unity. Just call up the gkbd-keyboard-display app. You will need to pass it an argument of the layout name you want to view. For example for the standard US English layout:

gkbd-keyboard-display -l us

If you don't know the name of your layout, you can use setxkbmap -query to find it. To view your current layout whategkbd-keyboard-display -l $(setxkbmap -query | sed -n '/^layout/ {s/.*: *//g;p}')ver it may be, try:

gkbd-keyboard-display -l $(setxkbmap -query | sed -n '/^layout/ {s/.*: *//g;p}')

The app will show you the current layout including what you will get with modifier keys and show you what keys you are currently pressing. It does not act as an on-screen keyboard to enter keystrokes via the mouse, it only shows you info about the keyboard layout.

Caleb
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Florence seems to be quite a good option.

Florence is an extensible scalable virtual keyboard for GNOME.

It is useful when a real keyboard is unusable either because of a handicap, disease, broken keyboard or tablet PC; but when a pointing device is usable.

Florence stays out of your way: it appears on the screen only when needed. An auto-click functionality also help people having difficulties to click buttons.

Installation

  1. Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=217749
  2. Extract to a folder.
  3. Open a terminal window inside the folder.
  4. Run ./configure and follow any instructions it might give you (update packages, install something, ...).
  5. Run make.
  6. If You haven't got it installed yet, install checkinstall (sudo apt-get install checkinstall).
  7. Run sudo checkinstall.
RobinJ
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  • The apt.ubuntu link resulted in "could not find package florence'. And it wasn't available in apt-get either – Rabarberski Sep 04 '11 at 08:33
  • That's strange :s Maybe it's in one of the many PPA's I've added... Anyway, here's the link: http://florence.sourceforge.net/english.html – RobinJ Sep 04 '11 at 09:07
  • @RobinJ - can I suggest you edit into your answer your comment together with how someone could install the software. – fossfreedom Sep 04 '11 at 09:14
  • @fossfreedom Done. – RobinJ Sep 04 '11 at 09:46
  • I think it's possible to search for the packages in the USC and see from which repo it is. – Oxwivi Sep 04 '11 at 11:17
  • Thanks for the effort in explaining. I followed your steps but the ./configure stops at error: package requirements (gmodule-2.0 cairo librsvg-2.0 ...) were not met and a bunch of other advice. I tried apt-get searching for gmodule, but no package turned up. I'll leave it at this, as I don't want to spend time figuring out build and compilation issues. Thanks anyway – Rabarberski Sep 05 '11 at 07:55
  • -1. The OP wants virtual keyboard viewer, not virtual keyboard. This software caused my system to restart because misconfigured the keyboard, although I closed the app. – Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 Aug 01 '17 at 19:24
  • @LéoLéopoldHertz준영 As long as said "virtual keyboard" fulfils the same role I do not see the problem. – RobinJ Aug 04 '17 at 09:26
  • @LéoLéopoldHertz준영 Sounds like you're just trying to push your opinion, because so far I have not read any factual reasons as to why this would not be a valid answer. Either way this question is 6 years old and technology has changed a lot in the meantime. As such any discussion over this question and its answers is pointless. – RobinJ Aug 05 '17 at 13:58
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In Ubuntu 20.04 > Settings > Regions & Language > Add input source.

Click + to add any input source, then in the menu bar top right you have a menu for selecting input source and at the bottom of this menu is "Show Keyboard Layout".

It does not do exactly what you want because pressing a modifier does not change the appearance but it shows up to 4 possible characters for every key. Pressing modifiers also allows to identify Control, Super, Meta, Alt, Menu.

Pierre ALBARÈDE
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