[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MichaelCPalmer:
Android Keyboard Issues

Hello. I am a new Android user who has purchased an RCA Viking Pro 10 2-in-1 Android Laptop running Android 6.0 with kernel version 3.18.22(not rooted). I use it to work on various projects on the go, offline about 95% of the time. I'm having some problems regarding the keyboard and cannot seem to root it. I would appreciate any help someone could offer.

My device is labeled as RCT6K03W13-Android6.0-v1.15.0-M00 and runs Android 6.0 kernel version 3.18.22. KingRoot fails to discover a rooting strategy, then tries anyway but fails. Please note that I have no other computer and only limited computer access.

The biggest issue involves to two cmd buttons that flank the spacebar. Pressing them opens Google App for a voice search, which I never use. This minimizes the app that I was using, starts google app, then minimizes that to show the search bar on the desktop (which I would also like to go away). Then a popup tells me that I'm not connected to the internet. Since I rarely am, this is extremely annoying. If I wanted to run a web search I would open Chrome myself. I certainly wouldn't want the results to appear in Google App, which doesn't work nearly as well. I blame RCA for poor design, placing hotkeys at the bottom of the keyboard where they're likely to be pressed accidentally (it is a small keyboard, after all).

I would like to remap the left and right Cmd buttons to the left and right mouse buttons. I tried External Keyboard Helper, but it can't remap the command buttons and won't remap anything to the mouse buttons anyway. The Viking Pro includes a touchpad mouse without buttons, which is fine for most Android users, but I intend to work extensively with Linux ports such as AndrOpen Office and GIMP Inkscape, and they require precision when dragging and dropping small objects.

Also, the two finger touchpad touch that's meant to simulate a right mouse button click works as a back button instead. I already have one of those on my screen and one on my keyboard, I certainly don't need a third. What I do need is a right mouse button. It should simulate a long press and/or the right button.

Unfortunately GIMP Inkscape and Pelya's linux translation layer don't run on Android 6, so I need to either run Linux Deploy, which requires ROOT, or go all out and just install Linux(perhaps Ubuntu Phone), which requires unlocking my boot manager. Perhaps I should have just bought a Linux Netbook instead, but the tablet was cheap and something about Android attracted me to it. I thought I would be able to find more g featured Linux ports, but Google did to good of a job when they monetized the package manager and locked out root access. I would think running x-11 over the framebuffer would be easy, and that people would port current versions of LibreOffice, Scribus, Inkscape, Blender, ext. I guess linux users are sore about google stealing Linux's thunder when they released Android just as Linux on phones, tablets, and netbooks was gaining traction.

As an old DOS gamer and amateur Linux programmer, I'm not averse to manually editing cfg files (or to setting jumpers to configure my hardware). Unfortunately, I'm new to Android and have limited internet access. Any help someone could offer to a 90s geek with out-of-date computer skills due to some legal problems would be greatly appreciated (the empty wallet hardly helps things).

Sincerely

Michael Palmer

MichaelCPalmer1980@gmail.com