this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023

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I made a FOSS physical keyboard for my Fairphone 4 (feddit.de)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

geteilt von: https://feddit.de/post/3048730

Github link: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry

Here's a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb8_ld9gOQ

I've been using it for almost two years now, and I'm not going back.

It's based on a spare Blackberry Q10 keyboard and a custom Arduino-compatible board that reads the keyboard matrix and outputs it as USB HID to the phone. From the viewpoint of the phone, it's just a regular USB keyboard, so no special software is needed.

But I do use a custom virtual keyboard to have just two rows of symbols that are not natively on the keyboard, as I didn't want to add another layer of rarely used symbols that I'd have to memorize.

(On the image you can see Ubuntu with XFCE4 running on it. I chose Ubuntu because it's what was easiest to get running in a chroot jail on the phone. I'm using VNC to display the GUI. I even managed to get FEX (x86/x64 emulator) and Wine running, so it runs x86/x64 Linux and Windows apps.)

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Long phone is looooooooooong.

[–] incogtino 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

long loooong maaaaan

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Thanks, this is amazing^^

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=6-1Ue0FFrHY

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

this is co cool

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm surprised that there isn't already a simple thumb keyboard with a USB-C plug at the top that you can just buy on Amazon. I would think that what you've done here would be super helpful for lots of people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I would love an foldable case with a keyboard on one side. Like a little Laptop. Would be so neat.

Edit, something like this:

iPhone_5_Keyboard_Case-e1403108526375

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The only thing on the market that kinda resembles this is the keyboard for the Pinephone. I've been considering hacking one of these and making them compatible with other phones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or the Gemini PDA/Fxtec Pro1-X.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These are not attachments, that's why I didn't reference them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, valid point.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you know if Linux is installable on any phone that can be unlocked? Last time I tried Linux on a phone was Ubuntu touch on a nexus 4.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda, yes and no, depinding on what you mean.

Native desktop Linux on bare metal, that's not possible, afaik. At least I have never seen anyone do that, so I don't think that's possible. Only very specific phones that are designed for this (e.g. the Pinephone) can do this.

Specialized phone Linux distros like Ubuntu Touch or PostmarketOS can be installed on any phone that someone ported the OS to. This is by far not every phone, but there are some phones where that is possible.

Running a real desktop Linux in a chroot jail is something every rooted phone is able to do. Here, the phone's regular Linux kernel is used to run the userland of the desktop Linux in a separated file system. From the user's viewpoint this is real Linux, but the Kernel that is used is the Android kernel. Also, the whole Android userland is running at the same time. This means, you can e.g. see (and kill) Linux processes from Android and vice versa. You can access the UI of the chrooted Linux using either a VNC or an X11 app, and the CLI either over SSH or directly over a command from the Android CLI.

The last option is using e.g. Termux to run a desktop Linux in a proot jail. This works similar to chroot, but doesn't require root. The downsides are that you don't have root inside the desktop Linux and afaik it only works until Android 11. Otherwise you get similar results as with chroot, only slower and without requireing root.

I went with the chroot option, which works great. I even managed to get FEX (an x86/x64 emulator) to run, which, together with Wine even allows me to run Windows programs on my phone (slowly).

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

That looks absolutely perfect! Man I miss real keyboards on phones

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yessss... Damn... With Linux on it too. I'd love that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was looking for something like it for years. Or a HTC Desire Z style case with a slideout keyboard, even Bluetooth.

I miss texting in landscape.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, the Desire Z was amazing. Used to play doom and pokemon in it as well, the keyboard worked great as a controller.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Wow that's great! I don't see myself needing something like this, but it's a cool tech nonetheless! Great job!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My first android phone was one with a physical slide out keyboard and damnit I really miss that. This is brilliant.

I wonder if I could load a newer OS on that old phone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Depending on the phone, there might be some custom ROM or something like PostmarketOS.

[+] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Marry me!

Thanks for the offer, but you are too late for that ;)

It’s a pretty big compromise compared with BB phones (you pretty much have to remove the keyboard to put the phone in your pocket or charge it, right?)

I don't remove the keyboard when I put it in my pocket. But for charging it needs to be removed, since I didn't add pass-through charging to the whole thing. Pass through charging is really complicated and I already spent a lot of time on this.

but I would totally use one if I could get something like this for my phone.

If you got some CAD skills, you can just adjust the case for any phone you like. It should even work with an iPhone, you just need to use a Lightning-to-USB-OTG solder connector instead of the USB-C-to-OTG solder connector I am using.

But yeah, that's a concept issue here. The case needs to be adjusted for every specific phone. So if anyone was do do this commercially, they'd probably have to pick 2-3 different devices to support and that's it.

Why no one is simply making keyboard cases? Phone case with a bluetooth keyboard doesn’t look like a very expensive/complicate project.

There are a few issues. The device-specificity is one, but another one is that Blackberry still had some patents on phone keyboards and they just sold them to a patent troll company. Might not be a big issue for a large company, but experimental accessories are usually made by small companies who are happy to output just a few tens of thousands of units max. And for a little company like that, paying off a patent troll is too expensive to make it worthwhile.

Also, small keyboards are surprisingly hard (read expensive) to make on a small scale. I got lucky that there are still enough BBQ10 spare keyboards around, but the total supply isn't exactly huge and I wouldn't bet a company on that kind of supply.

So if you want one, make yourself one before the BBQ10 spare keyboards are gone.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Amazing!

Gosh i really want physical Keyboards in Smartphones back...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, me too. But since there's nothing decent on the market, I had to make it myself.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's an impressive project indeed.

And here all I can cynically think is "Great, finally a way to make the FP4 a bit more unwieldy and hard to hold with small hands, that had always been way too easy before!"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's actually not too bad. It's worse to put it into a small pocket ;)

I fear, this whole thing would be 100% incompatible with woman's trousers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pretty sure most phones are. Wtf is it with women's clothes and those bullshit micro pockets anyway?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's totally stupid. About every woman I know complains (and rightfully so) about these micro pockets. Still nobody in the clothes industry can't be bothered to just put a few centimeters of extra cloth onto the pockets to make them actually useful.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aren’t women’s trousers well-known for not having pockets? Not happening there!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Either no pockets or pockets that are ridiculously shallow and narrow. Like I (M) can fit my whole hand up to my wrist with lots of room left over. Women's pants can fit just their four fingers if they're lucky.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

x86 apps? Awesome.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It won't run Crysis, but if performance is not a criterium, it does work.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

New cases with slide out keyboards like the old LG Ally incoming? 😂

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Sadly not. Coming from a Droid 4, a side sliding keyboard was my first approach (actually my first 8 prototypes were some form of side slide keyboard) but it's impossible due to the center of gravity. On all keyboard phones, the mainboard and battery where in the keyboard part, with only the light screen on the top half. With a keyboard attachment that's not possible.

So I gave up and made this here, and it just worked great. I would still prefer a side sliding keyboard, but I fear it's not possible to make a decent one.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I love the idea of my Fairphone running XFCE lol. Good job OP

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Trust me, this is an exceptionally apt reference to BlackBerry (2023). Based on my lack of upvotes I assume not many people have seen it yet 😅

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah, haven't seen it yet. Sorry...

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'd buy it!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Cool as hell I miss physical keyboards so much

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

nice clicky sound, appretiate it but agree other commnents, would be nice to have horizontal version

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it would be nice. I would also prefer a horizontal version.

That's sadly not really possible, though. The issue is that you need most of the weight in the keyboard part of a horizontal keyboard phone. If you look at any of these, they all have battery, mainboard, cameras and IO in the keyboard part of the phone, with only the screen being on the other part.

With a keyboard attachment, that's not possible. You have all the weight up top. That means, you can never get the center of gravity in a comfortable position.

Believe me, I tried. I only had horizontal keyboard phones before, and the first 8 prototypes where some kind of side-sliding phone, and they all didn't work out, because of the COG. Even if I added weights to the keyboard, that wasn't enough. To balance the ~225g of that phone, I'd have to add >300g to the keyboard, and I really don't want to carry a 0.5kg training weight in my pocket at all times.

So I gave up and stuck a Blackberry keyboard onto my phone :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Love it. Miss my keyboard, badly. Was a die hard Crackberry user for many years.

I see a reference to adding a lightning connector. Is it that trivial to adapt?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Funnily, yes it is. At least in theory, I haven't tested it.

I am not using the USB connector directly, but instead I have a small USB OTG breakout board in between, which has USB C on one side and USB 2.0 OTG on the other side.

The same kind of board exists for Micro USB (which I tested on my last phone) and Lightning.

So all you need to do is swap the connector and that's that. And of course adjust the case design files to fit an iPhone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

XFCE on mobile + physical keyboard is the bees knees. May the kudos be with you.

[–] Tucumano88 3 points 1 year ago

Awesome!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=iDb8_ld9gOQ

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I like vertical keyboards! I had one on Nokia Asha 302.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting...

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