The first moment that your virtual keyboard stops working should be when you start recalling back what you did last that could have made it to not work. To postpone it 4-5 months and hoping the fix would be out isn't going to help it.

There has been a known set of programs that could be the culprits in making the virtual keyboard not appear. Removing the programs one by one and testing in between to see if the virtual keyboard reappears would be the solution that I have done previously. Though once getting the virtual keyboard to to work I would then reinstall the program to see if the virtual keyboard disappears. If it would disappear, I would remove the program and not install it.

Here is my list of susceptible culprits:

• mscim
• qimsys
• K9 keyboard
• Any portrait based keyboard program

Failing all that and as a last resort I would backup and reflash.