Re: [tlug] Japanese in Slackware (8.x or 9.0)

[Tim Hurman <kano-tlug@example.com>]

On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Scott Robbins wrote:

> I like Slackware for various reasons, however, I've been unable to get
> it working with Japanese input. (No problem reading Japanese with
> opera).
>
> Here are the steps I've taken--during installation, chosen the
> glibc-i18n libraries.  Installed Canna and kinput2, which install
> without error.  Installed rxvt including xim and kanji support.
>
> Called rxvt with my usual langx script, the XMODIFIERS="@example.com=kinput2"
> LC_CTYPE=ja_JP ${1+"$@"} using rxvt as the argument. Tried with mlterm
> as well.  Tried the version suggested for FreeBSD (that works with
> FreeBSD, XMODIFIERS='@example.com=kinput2' LANG=ja_JP ${1+"$@"}  Tried setting
> the XMODIFIERS in my .Xdefaults.
>
> When I call rxvt with the langx script, I get a message that setting
> locale failed. Searching for that error on google brought me many hits
> on programming, but nothing that seemed related.
>
> Yamashita san gave me some links in Japanese, however, I haven't been
> able to make them (as I understood them) work. Jonathan Katz-Brown's
> article gives links to packages that are apparently specifically made
> for Slackware, but the link to those packages seems to be broken, at
> least here in the US.
>
> I'm not a programmer, and my Japanese reading is very weak--too weak to
> do a adequate search for articles on this in Japanese.
>
> The method listed above has worked with Root Linux, Yoper and Crux. With
> Arch Linux, I had to uncomment a line for locales in the glibc makefile
> and it also worked.  None of the ones listed above had Japanese packages,
> at least as far as I know. (Gentoo, RH and FreeBSD all have their own
> installation methods and include Japanese packages either on the CD or
> easily installed with ports or portage.)
>
>
> In all cases, (not sure if this is relevant) it worked in twm, wmaker
> and fluxbox.  (I also tried downloading and installing the Slack kde
> internationalization package, thinking that maybe it would help even if
> I didn't use kde)
>
>
> Therefore, I suspect that it's something very simple
> that I simply lack the knowledge (and/or ability) to uncover.
>
> The one article I found in English, that I
> thought might help me involved the gentleman getting some
> Plamo packages and hacking them, something which is probably beyond my
> expertise. So, to finally get to my questions,
> Is there anyone here running Japanese in Slackware, and can it be done
> with little or no programming knowledge?  Is there a pacakage, or
> perhaps packages, that I'm missing?
>
>

I have Japanese input working well on slackware, my setup is thus:

# /etc/rc.d/rc.local
if [ -d "/tmp/.iroha_unix" ]; then
        rm -rf /tmp/.iroha_unix
fi

if [ -x /usr/local/canna/bin/cannaserver ]; then
        /usr/local/canna/bin/cannaserver -u nobody
fi

# /etc/profile
XMODIFIERS="@example.com=kinput2"
export XMODIFIERS

# /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/kinput2 ]; then
        LC_ALL=ja_JP LANG=ja_JP /usr/X11R6/bin/kinput2 -canna &
fi


now to enter Japanese (I dont know if rxvt will understand things properly)
LC_ALL=ja_JP LANG=ja_JP kterm -km euc -xim
you can also set x resources for these options.

(as a quick note, I have noticed that mozilla does not like having
XMODIFIERS set but not having LANG and LC_ALL set to ja_JP (it crashes)

if you have vim with multibyte support, it will be able to enter and save
properly. If you save a file with vim, it will be in EUC encoding, you can
turn it into (IMHO) something more useful with:

iconv -f EUCJP -t UTF8 -o <output file> <input file>

You may also want to check that you have the ja_JP locale installed, if
not you can create it with localedef.

If you find any docs that you cannot read, I find that
babelfish.altavista.com is your friend :)

hope that helps,

Tim.

-- 
"ergo it is easier to drag sheep downhill" - Applied Ergonomics Magasine
Tim Hurman - Email: kano at kano.org.uk - Phone: Yeah right.