OSK Fix

A GNOME Shell extension that forces the native on-screen keyboard (OSK) to appear in applications that don't normally trigger it.

Native Wayland apps work out of the box; the keyboard is forced in apps that don't request it (Vivaldi, Chromium, Electron).

Tested on GNOME 50 and 51. XWayland applications are not supported yet.

Installation

Drag and drop (recommended)

1. Download the release zip and extract it.
2. Drag the osk-fix@houssemko.github.io folder into ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/.
3. Log out and back in, then enable it with gnome-extensions enable osk-fix@houssemko.github.io (or Extensions app → OSK Fix → on).

• Release 1.11: osk-fix@houssemko.github.io.v1.11.shell-extension.zip

One-line install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Linuxuser67/GNOME-OSK-fix/main/install.sh | bash

Manual

git clone https://github.com/Linuxuser67/GNOME-OSK-fix.git
cd GNOME-OSK-fix
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/osk-fix@houssemko.github.io/schemas
cp extension.js metadata.json README.md LICENSE \
   ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/osk-fix@houssemko.github.io/
cp schemas/org.gnome.shell.extensions.osk-fix.gschema.xml \
   ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/osk-fix@houssemko.github.io/schemas/
glib-compile-schemas ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/osk-fix@houssemko.github.io/schemas/
gnome-extensions enable osk-fix@houssemko.github.io

Note: log out and back in after enabling (Wayland cannot restart GNOME Shell in-place).

Activation

The extension is active only while Settings → Accessibility → Screen Keyboard is ON. Toggling it takes effect immediately — no reload needed.

Troubleshooting

• If the journal reports a missing gschemas.compiled, compile the extension schemas: glib-compile-schemas ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/osk-fix@houssemko.github.io/schemas/
• To trace open/learn decisions, set OSK_FIX_DEBUG=1 for the GNOME Shell process before login, then inspect: journalctl --user -b | grep osk-fix

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE for details