Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

orionthehunter · 2015-10-20 03:13:03

As Input Methods seem to morph and change with every debian release, I thought I would put together an up-to-date tutorial/guide for setting up ibus for Japanese input (should work for Chinese and other input methods as well)

First install some basic packages, in a terminal as root:

apt-get install ibus ibus-anthy ibus-gtk ibus-gtk3 ibus-qt4 ttf-vlgothic ttf-ipafont

*Note on ibus-anthy: Many people prefer ibus-mozc for Japanese input. They both work. Use whichever you like better.

Next we need to run ibus, in a terminal:

ibus-daemon &

If all goes well, you should get a new system tray icon like this:

Next right click on the icon, click on Preferences. Switch to the Input Method tab. Click Add. Find your desired input method. For anthy, click on Japanese, then Anthy, then click Add.

If you want your zenkaku_hankaku key to change input methods for you, return to the General Tab. Next to the "Next Input Method" textbox showing <Super> space, click the "..." button. Once again click the "..." button next to the Key code textbox. Click "disabled" then press the zenkaku_hankaku key, then click add.

It should look like this:

You can close the preferences window now. I recommend testing to make sure your settings work. Open a text editor, type some text, then press the zenkaku_hankaku key, or whatever keyboard shortcut you have set to change your input methods, and try typing in Japanese.

You should be able to log-out and log-back in and still find the ibus icon in the systray. No need to edit autostart. Yay.

Last edited by orionthehunter (2015-10-20 03:17:00)

tknomanzr · 2015-10-20 04:39:44

Nice. Thanks for the walkthrough.

johnraff · 2015-10-22 03:01:46

Thank you for this.
(I'm one of the mozc preferers.)

microcord · 2018-02-05 05:28:11

Thank you. I don't mean to diss this at all, but I too prefer mozc; and earlier today I read praise for fcitx (which I hadn't previously heard of) in preference to ibus.

Srobb.net's page "Inputting Japanese text in Linux and some BSDs" has recipes for the fcitx and mozc combination, and has a section titled "Debian Jessie and Stretch", which I, using BL Deuterium, followed ignorantly (as I'm a permanent NooB), carefully, and successfully.

johnraff · 2018-02-05 07:31:00

This topic dates back to 2015. I'm also currently using fcitx+mozc for Japanese input, with no problems at all.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-02-05 19:33:02

Wasn't fcitx the #! option?

johnraff · 2018-02-06 02:53:37

I don't think there was a #! option for multi-byte character IME. Even if there was, I'd guess it would have been IBUS+anthy, as in the OP here.

johnraff · 2018-02-06 03:09:37

microcord wrote:

Srobb.net's page "Inputting Japanese text in Linux and some BSDs" has recipes for the fcitx and mozc combination, and has a section titled "Debian Jessie and Stretch"

I'm not sure if all those environment variables need to be set, to be honest. I don't remember doing much to get things set up on Debian Jessie beyond installing fcitx-mozc with recommends, and then using fcitx's system tray applet to set mozc as input method, and my choice of keyboard shortcut (on a Japanese keyboard there are a few unused keys: I use "全角/半角").

There is, however, a still-unfixed bug with Lightdm related to incorrect setting of LANG and LANGUAGE, caused by wrong spelling of UTF-8 in ~/.dmrc. BunsenLabs ship /etc/X11/Xsession.d/21-bunsen-lightdm-locale (in bunsen-configs) which applies the patch described in the above link; on non-Bunsen systems without this file (or some similar hack) Japanese locales don't work properly.

microcord · 2018-02-06 07:59:28

johnraff wrote:

I don't think there was a #! option for multi-byte character IME. Even if there was, I'd guess it would have been IBUS+anthy, as in the OP here.

I have IBUS+Mozc running on a #! system. Of course I installed #! when it was still current (and not, perversely, as a "retro" alternative to BL), and I think I chose Mozc at that time. (It's unlikely that I switched later from anthy to mozc; if only because I'm a lazy bastard, and if it ain't broke....)

As for installing fcitx and mozc on BL, I'm sorry that I didn't make note of the details, but the procedure went more smoothly than a reading of the srobb.net page had led me to fear. However, there were one or two stages where I thought I'd done everything right, logged out, logged back in -- and no, contrary to my expectation this or that wasn't available (or up and running, or whatever); but I rebooted and thereupon it was as expected.

#1 2015-10-20 03:13:03

Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#2 2015-10-20 04:39:44

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#3 2015-10-22 03:01:46

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#4 2018-02-05 05:28:11

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#5 2018-02-05 07:31:00

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#6 2018-02-05 19:33:02

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#7 2018-02-06 02:53:37

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#8 2018-02-06 03:09:37

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

#9 2018-02-06 07:59:28

Re: Setting up Input Methods on Bunsen Hydrogen (Tutorial with Scrots)

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