Dumb TT9 (com.offlineinc.dumbtt9) reverts to stock 12-key keyboard on every reboot — IME drops out of enabled list

[jameswagar]

Summary

com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 (the bundled/rebranded TT9 keyboard) reverts to the stock feature-phone keyboard (com.iqqijni.dvt912key) on every reboot. This isn't just "not selected as default" — the package drops out of the enabled-IME list entirely (ime list -s no longer shows it after reboot), which is why the system falls back to another keyboard.

Root cause found

The launcher installs/enables/grants permissions to/sets-default com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 exactly once, gated by a permanent migration flag:

shared_prefs/voice_engine_setup.xml:
  <boolean name="old_install_migrated_v1" value="true" />

Confirmed via the built APK (decompiled classes.dex from the installed v5.33.0-beta10): the relevant strings (ime set com.offlineinc.dumbtt9/..., ime enable com.offlineinc.dumbtt9/..., pm grant com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO) are all present, run as part of this one-time setup.

Since the flag never resets, that setup step never runs again on subsequent boots. Meanwhile, something (still unclear exactly what — possibly related to how com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 is packaged/installed vs. a stock TT9 build, or a signing/verification quirk) causes Android to drop that specific package's IME-enabled registration on every boot.

Evidence it's package-specific, not a general OS reset

Sideloading the unmodified, stock TT9 (io.github.sspanak.tt9, from F-Droid) alongside com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 and enabling both: after a reboot, io.github.sspanak.tt9 stays enabled, while com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 drops out of the enabled list entirely. Same reboot, same device, different outcome — so this isn't Android broadly resetting IME state at boot, it's specific to this package.

Repro

1. Fresh setup: com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 gets installed/enabled/set as default (the one-time old_install_migrated_v1 migration).
2. Reboot.
3. settings get secure default_input_method → reverted to com.iqqijni.dvt912key/.keyboard_service.view.HDKeyboardService.
4. ime list -s → com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 is no longer listed as enabled at all.

Suggested fix

Either:

1. Find and fix whatever makes Android drop this specific package's IME-enabled registration at boot (worth checking how com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 is installed/signed relative to the stock TT9 build, and whether its manifest/IME service declaration differs in a way that matters across a fresh process/boot), or
2. At minimum, don't gate the enable+set-default step behind a permanent one-time flag — re-check/re-apply it on every boot (or at least verify current IME state matches expectation and re-apply if not), so it self-heals regardless of the underlying cause.

Workaround in use

A Magisk service.d boot script that waits for sys.boot_completed=1, then re-runs ime enable + settings put secure default_input_method for com.offlineinc.dumbtt9 on every boot. Confirmed this restores the keyboard correctly immediately when run manually; a full reboot test is in progress to confirm it also fires correctly as an actual boot script.