Re: [tlug] Japanese Input - Kubuntu 12.04 LTS

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 12:31 AM, Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com> wrote:
>> 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.

First, thank you very much for taking the time to look into this.

> 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....

I suspect the instructions were written for an earlier version and
then they moved things around, but didn't edit the instructions(?).

> 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.

I just tried that and got to "System Languages" that way.  Earlier, I
didn't think to do a search for it, but I eventually got to the
"System Languages" section via System Settings > Locale > System
Languages.

In my case, what I'm seeing now under "System Languages" > "Install
and set system languages" > is a list of languages, with English
installed, and the only option available after selecting a language
(Japanese in this case) is "Translations" which is exactly what I
don't want, although I can live with it if it helps get Japanese input
going (or I can usually live with it I should say - actually I'm
determined to have English on this box).  The other three options
"Input methods", "Spellchecking and writing aids", and "Extra fonts"
are grayed out for all languages.  Presumably, if "Input methods" were
select-able, it could be set here.

> 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.

When I enter XMODIFERS=@im=ibus konsole

- I get:

QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before
QCoreApplication.  Application may misbehave.

- and... Japanese doesn't appear to be working.

> 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.

I'm not seeing
".bash_profile"; there's ".bash_history", ".profile", and
".bash_logout" in my user folder and I don't see it in the Root folder

> 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.

I guess this is the sort of thing that is taken care of automatically
when doing a Japanese language install...  This is a test machine, so
I can take my time getting it to work, and - just for once (post-Suse,
which worked flawlessly) - I want to get Japanese input without
getting stuck with Japanese menus.

> 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.

I don't mind the idea of manually stating it, but where can I find
".bash_profile"?  Should that be in my user folder, or in the Root
folder?

Thanks again for looking into this!  I appreciate it!

Lyle