Re: [tlug] Japanese Input - Kubuntu 12.04 LTS

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Wed, Sep 04, 2013 at 09:44:59AM -0400, Scott Robbins wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 04, 2013 at 10:18:55PM +0900, Lyle H Saxon wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 10:02 PM, Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 11:38 AM, s smith <sjs@example.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> > Advanced
> > >> > Share the same input method among all applications
> > >> Try without this checked.
> 
> This is Kubuntu 12.04, LTS standard desktop, correct?

Ok, downloaded Kubuntu 12.04, LTS standard 32 bit desktop for VM.
Installed it on VirtualBox.
I uncommented the partners lines in apt sources list, ran apt-get update
and apt-get upgrade which insetalled a few things, app-armor and such.

Then

apt-get install ibus-anthy
I then ibus-setup. 
First, I check the customize active input methods checkbox.  Then, I'm
given the opportunity to add Japanese. As has been mentioned (and is a
pretty poor design decision, since, as we've seen, some people think it
means it's broken, I can add anthy by click the little > rather than the
word Japanese.  This shows anthy.  I click it, and then click add, and it
shows up in the input method list.  They give the message about what to set
very early in the process, and don't repeat it, and I can't find where to
look.  Bad design.  Add another user to read the message, ibus has been
started, blah blah, use system menu, system settings, language support, set
keyboard input method to ibus, then log out.  

But, in system menu, there is no language support.  If whoever designed
this worked for MS or Apple, they'd probably be fired, but anyway....

So, I click the K button, it defaults to favorites, I type in language, and
I get system languages.  I get language support not installed (no mention
of the language) and click install  Note that it hasn't given me an option
of choosing a language to install.  I assume this is supposed to be easier
than say, FreeBSD, but so far, I'm unimpressed. I do remember it being very
easy on Lubuntu, as described in an earlier post. 

So Lyle, I have to agree, it shouldn't be this hard, assuming that their
aim is for newcomers, it's horribly designed..  Ah, OK, I see as it's
installing that it's installed British English, which is what everyone in
the NY time zone would want. Now, I click Japanese and click OK but nothing
happens.  

So, I do what I do in less user friendly environments, try manually setting
XMODIFIERS.

XMODIFERS=@im=ibus konsole

This opens up konsole and Japanese works.  
I know try adding that line XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus to my .bash_profile, log
out, log back in.  I don't know how one gets ibus to start at boot on
Kubuntu, after a reboot, in both Ubuntu and Lubuntu, once configured, it
seems to run at boot.  

At any rate, after reboot, I manually started it with 
ibus-daemon --xim &
I'm sure there's a way to do it that's more familiar to you. I had, in my
.bash_profile, XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus

So, once started, I was able to enter Japanese in konsole, rekonq, and
libreoffice.  (With libreoffice, I first went to to Tools, options, added
support for Asian Language, and chose Japanese as the default Asian
language.

So, while I most certainly agree it's harder to get working than it is on
FreeBSD, it seems that part of it is simply bad documentation.  Install
ibus-anthy, install language support--in my case, on an English system,
there was no real indication of which language support was being installed,
unlike Ubuntu and Kubuntu, where one explicitly picks Japanese, and on
this, it seemed to only install complete English support, so that step may
be unnecessary.  Run ibus-setup and add anthy.  Then, add 

XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus

to your .bash_profile, log out, log in, and you should be fine, though you
may have to manually start ibus on each reboot.

> 

-- 
Scott Robbins
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