Make EditText gain focus using dpad

I have a simple interface in my app - a button on the top of the screen, an EditText in the screen center and 2 more buttons at the bottom. Now I would like to use dpad to navigate thru the app's elements, everything works fine besides the EditText - basically i can browse thru the items fine, buttons get highlighted on focus, but not the EditText - it seems unresponsive even when I click the dpad center button (so the keyboard doesn't show up). For example when I have the very top element highlighted and I press down on the dpad, the top button looses focus, none of the 2 buttons at the bottom get the focus, so it looks like it's the EditText that gets the focus, but it doesn't highlight in any way, nor show the keyboard. When I click it with the coursor (or touch on the device) it's all ok.

I've tried adding the OnKeyListener to check but doesn't seem to fire off - like the EditText didn't really get the focus and the KeyEvent isn't fired on the EditText:

editKanal.setOnKeyListener(new View.OnKeyListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
            if (event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN)
                if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER){
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "got the focus", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                    return true;
                }

            return false;
        }
    });

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? How do I make an EditText show the keyboard on DPAD_CENTER pressed?

Hello had this problem before most likely causes are

1-not adding focus down

2-the items not being in the same layout

please make sure both are true