physical keyboard compatibility on stock Android

Hi! I have a questions, i'm currently using a Xperia Pro mk16, last official update for was to 4.0.4, it's a bit old and SONY's custom ROM is not the best in the world I feel, so I was thinking on changing it for stock Android.

Thing is, this phone features a physical QWERTY keyboard, and I don't know if there's some particular software being used to make it work or if stock Android will pick it up automatically, so before I start looking into replacing the version of Android I have I'd like to know this and what I could do should the answer be 'no'.

Another question I have is wether having stock Android will make rooting easier, since rooting this phone has proven a bit of a *****.

thanks!

Are you talking about connecting a basic USB keyboard via OTG cable? If the phone supports OTG, the keyboard should work. You could also use a Bluetooth keyboard--most are universally compatible, but it's better to get one designed for Android--if you get one made for iPhone, you'll have lots of extraneous keys that don't do anything on Android.

Also, you have to be able to root the phone first before you can install a custom ROM to replace Sony's stock ROM.