In a previous versions of Kali Linux Nethunter Pro that I tested on my PinePhone, the on-screen keyboard for the terminal had a FN key that (if I remember correctly) allowed you to access special keys such as CTRL, ALT and the function keys F1, F2 and so on.
In the latest version of Kali Linux Nethunter Pro, it seems there a number of pre-configured shortcuts such as CTRL+R, Home, End, CTRL+W and so on that can be accessed via a type of toolbar above the keyboard. However, it does not appear to be possible to access the full range of special keys as in previous versions.
Is there some way to bring back the access to these special keys? Thanks!
Never mind, I figured it out.
The previous version of Nethunter Pro (2024-01) apparently used Squeekboard as its OSK. The keyboard layout can easily be configured in Squeekboard (Mobian/How-to - Debian Wiki). However, this same Wiki article also states that Squeekboard is temporarily not available in Debian / Trixie, implying that there may have been unresolved issues.
The current version of Nethunter Pro (2024-03) uses Phosh OSK Stub (Ubuntu Manpage: phosh-osk-stub - An (experimental) on screen keyboard for Phosh) instead of Squeekboard as its OSK. You can verify this by issuing the following commands:
dpkg -l | grep squeek
dpkg -l | grep osk
I was unable to determine for sure whether Phosh OSK Stub provides any way to configure keyboard layouts, but it does not seem so.
The good news is that it looks like any issues Squeekboard may have had have now been resolved, and the issue can be resolved by manually installing Squeekboard using apt.
sudo apt install squeekboard
sudo apt remove phosh-osk-stub
sudo init 6