On-Screen Keyboard
eLux can show an on-screen keyboard so a device without a physical keyboard can still receive input. It’s available on the logon screen, the lock screen, and the desktop.
Before you start
The device image must contain the onboard on-screen keyboard package. Without it, the keyboard never appears, no matter how it’s configured.
Configuring it from Scout Board
On UniconOS 2609 and later, configure AutoStart, Theme and Layout centrally from Scout Board instead of with file entries — see Keyboard and Mouse. On earlier eLux versions, use the file-entry method below.
An administrator can also lock the device user out of the settings below, see User rights. When Enable virtual keyboard is locked, the Accessibility toggle described below disappears; a device user can still close an open keyboard with its own close key, but then has no control to reopen it until the device restarts.
Turning it on and off
A user can show or hide the keyboard at any time from Quick System Access → Accessibility, unless an administrator has locked this. The toggle stays in sync with the keyboard’s actual state — for example, if the user closes the keyboard window directly, the toggle switches off too.
By default, this is a per-session choice only: the keyboard’s state resets the next time the device reboots.
Making it start automatically
To have the keyboard come up by itself after every reboot — at the login prompt, on the desktop, and on the lock screen — set the following in Scout → Advanced Configuration → File Entries:
| File | Section | Key | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
/setup/terminal.ini |
VirtualKeyboard |
AutoStart |
true (starts automatically on every boot) / false or omitted (today’s behavior — off by default) |
This is a policy the administrator sets centrally; there’s no per-device or per-user override on the device itself, and the on-screen toggle in Accessibility does not rewrite it. It’s off by default and available from eLux 7.2607.
Push it to a device or an OU, then reboot for it to take effect. Once set, hiding the keyboard for the current session (via Accessibility) doesn’t change this setting — the next reboot re-applies it, and the keyboard comes back if AutoStart=true.
Changing the layout and theme
Configure the keyboard’s appearance the same way, via Advanced Configuration → File Entries:
| File | Section | Key | Values |
|---|---|---|---|
/setup/terminal.ini |
VirtualKeyboard |
Theme |
elux-dark / elux-light
|
/setup/terminal.ini |
VirtualKeyboard |
Layout |
Compact-Elux / Full Keyboard-Elux
|
On UniconOS 2609 and later, a device user can also change the theme and the layout directly on the device, in the device configuration under Accessibility > Onscreen keyboard settings while the keyboard is shown, unless an administrator locks the matching user right.