[tlug] FreeBSD 4.7 and Japanese

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

Up until FreeBSD 4-7 Release I've always done the following with no
problems.

Install the release or RC (including 4.7-RC's)
I put in almost nothing, then cvsup ports and system. Do make world,
install a custom kernel, and start installing from ports.
Install X from ports, install kinput2-canna (which installs Canna). 
Install /usr/ports/japanese/rxvt
Use my langx script which is simply XMODIFIERS='@example.com=kinput2'
LANG=ja_JP.EUC ${1+"$@"} (I've found putting the XMODIFIERS in the
.Xdefaults to sometimes work and sometimes not.)

Call things like rxvt with my langx script--as I use fluxbox it's easy
enough to make it automatic in keybinding and menu.

However, with 4.7, this didn't work.  I would hit shift + space and get
no result. Here is where I should have been systematic and documented
what I did next, but as I was rushing to do something else, I didn't.
The two most obvious suspects, kinput2 not running and a terminal that
didn't support Japanese weren't the culprits. 

Half amusingly and half annoyingly, searching tlug archives came up with
posts of mine from a long time ago, which were probably connected to
hardware problems. Searching google for FreeBSD kinput2 (or something
similar) came up with my page as one of the first hits. There's a moral
there somewhere, but not sure what it is. 



I unsystematically played with it,
to the point where I can't say exactly what I did--for instance, using
the man page's suggestion of .Xdefaults, changing the single quotes to
double quotes (which seems to be the best fix).

Getting annoyed, and wanting to keep my page current, I then threw a
quick install from CD, including X on another test box. This time, all
worked as expected.  

The trouble is I don't have the time to do this over and over again, as
make world and building X from ports is time-consuming. So, for those of
you using Japanese on FreeBSD, if you do a fresh install of 4.7, I'd be
grateful if you could drop me a line and let me know if you're running
into any issues. What I'd want to know is:
Are you installing and using kinput2-canna before or after doing your
first cvsup and make world. 
Are you installing X from ports or CD, and before or after cvsupping
ports? Granted, none of this is overly important, as I can get it
working, but it's irritating.  

Note this problem only occurs with a fresh install.  No such problem
with an upgrade.


While I'm at it, do most of you using FreeBSD use a script like my langx
one or use an .Xdefaults (or .Xresources)?

Thanks
-- 
Scott Robbins

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