[tlug] English/Japanese Debian Install for beginners

[David Riggs <dariggs@example.com>]

With all the recent traffic about installing an English Linux with
Japanese input capability, I thought it was time for a word about
Debian.

Debian is not usually recommended for beginners, but this relatively
newby has done a Debian Net-Install in English and proceeded to
add Japanese input framework for any capable X program while keeping
the English menus and messages. This is how I did it.

Use Debian-Install Net Install from

    http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Follow the instructions and read the manuals. I have a step by step
log of my experience if any other beginner wants it. As Chuck Muller
has already describe here, you can readily upgrade to the latest
levels and add whatever software you need from the net, without having
to burn a lot of CD's that quickly go out of date.

This gives you a standard Debian system, which for me at least
installed with almost no problems on my Toshiba laptop.

My addition to this standard advice is the following easy way to get 
Japanese
support/ (I am following the Debian Reference Manual esp section 9.7).

Add Japanese locale and basic support by running these commands.

dpkg-reconfigure locales #choose both ja_JP.uf-8 and ja_JP.EUC-JP

aptitude install canna kinput2-canna ttf-sazanami-mincho
xfonts-intl-japanese xfonts-intl-japanese-big


Set X so that programs will have Japanese input capability.

1. Disable the startup of the graphical login by renaming the links in
/etc/rc2.d S99xdm, ~kdm, ~gdm to x99xdm, etc. Now at startup you will
be in a terminal, and you go to X when you please with the command
"startx".

2. Create this file in your home directory: .xsession, containing:

export XMODIFIERS="@example.com=kinput2" LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8 kinput2 -canna &
exec gnome-session


With these two changes you will start Gnome so that any capable
program will input Japanese in utf-8 encoding with the usual kinput2
toggle of shift-space or control-o.

My own slight modifications, (following the usual TLUG advice sources),
are just two.

1. To make the kanji in input conversion area kanji, put these lines
into the .Xresources file (or great it if not already present). The
lines need to not have a new line embedded, which may have been added
by the emailers.

Kinput2*font: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal--24-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1
Kinput2*kanjiFont:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal--24-*-*-*-c-*-jisx0208.1983-0
Kinput2*kanaFont:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal--24-*-*-*-c-*-jisx0201.1976-0


2.The cntl-o trigger for kanji input conflicts with many programs Open
command. To turn that off (just use shift-space), copy
/usr/share/canna/sample.canna, to .canna (in your home folder), and
add these lines at the end:

(global-unbind-key-function 'japanese-mode)
(global-unbind-key-function 'alpha-mode)

Thats all folks.

If there is a better way I would appreciate being told, but so far,
this works like a charm. As I mentioned earlier, I would be happy to
share my install cookbook notes with anyone who is interested. They
are a bit boring and long (200 lines) to post here.

(With much gratitude to all the folks who explained all the pieces I 
have assembled here).

David Riggs, Kyoto