Tips for touchscreen usability?

[chicagoandy]

I'm using this with an external HDMI and USB connected touchscreen monitor.

The touchscreen is detected, but touch-usability isn't great. The screen behaves much like a mouse, there are no touch gestures for scrolling. Instead you have to click int he scroll-bar. Additionally, I'm not getting an on-screen keyboard like I expected.

Can anyone point me in a direction for getting touch-friendly gestures, like drag-to-scroll, and an on-screen keyboard?

[geerlingguy]

@chicagoandy - Are you running the latest Pi OS (Bookworm), updated to all the latest versions? In that case the keyboard shows up automatically sometimes, but otherwise you have to tap the keyboard icon in the system tray (if it's not there, you might be on an older release or something else might be quirky with the setup). Scrolling has been a pain, if an app doesn't specifically handle touch UI, it will require touching the tiny scroll bar... that is a Pi OS limitation for the time being, it might be best to ask about things like that in the Pi Forums.

[chicagoandy]

Yes, runnign latest bookworm: Linux KitchenTouchscreen 6.6.62+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.62-1+rpt1 (2024-11-25) aarch64 GNU/Linux

I do not get a onscreen keyboard. I did find the UI for Rasberry Pi Configuration / Display / Touchscreen, where I have selected "display always", but I do not get a toucscreen popup, or anything in the top taskbar.

I'll try the Pi Forums. Thanks.

[leukipp]

@chicagoandy
I ran into the exact same problems. Scrolling is a pain and touch events are handled badly.

That's why I implemented a custom software solution instead of using the built-in Chromium browser:
https://github.com/leukipp/touchkio

With the mqtt integration, you can also trigger keyboard visibility on the screen directly from Home Assistant.