[SOLVED] Japaneese input on Slackware 13.37 need guidance

Totoro-kun · 12-03-2011, 07:04 AM

Good day fellow slackers,
Christmas is getting closer, and my girlfriends birthday too, as well as our little anniversary, so I am preparing a gift for her - A shiny Thinkpad laptop with Slackware 13.37 fully loaded.

For long time she only had a netbook, and I can't really see how people can use it as only computer and actually do any work on it... Anyways, she is currently using windows xp, but other software in there is already open source (Libre Office, VLC, Firefox, etc), So practically she could use Slackware, which is way better system, without problems.

However, there is one deal breaker - Japanese input. A computer without Japanese input is merely a toy for her. As she had studied in Japan and made friends there, plus she is running a Japanese cultural club and has many more related activities. So it is critical for me to configure JP input in soon to be hers Thinkpad. And I have no idea how it works.

So far I have tried JP input via xfce4-xkb-plugin which was pretty useless. When I asked her to try and use it on my computer, she couldn't write in Japanese at all. Then I looked in Arch wiki, and learned, that there are some input systems for the job, like scim, ibus and uim, but I do not know any of them. I did a quick look in /var/log/packages and found that scim is included in stock Slackware 13.37 already

Now, the question is how do I configure it properly? I can find very little information about this, so I am posting here. I need to integrate it with Slackware stock XFCE, and if possible, it should be similar to windows xp Japanese input. Maybe someone could help me by sharing howto or giving some advises like where to start? I imagine, a font for Japanese characters should also be present, but which ones are good? I would be thankful for any help in this matter.

Best regards,
Egidijus

BILLYKANE · 12-03-2011, 07:27 AM

Below is what I did, it do work even in my Chinese envionment.

first,please have anthy, scim and scim-anthy installed.They can be found in slackware official website.

Second, run scim-setup and you will find scim configure dialog.Click IMEngines--Global setup.In this section you will see all language option in th right and please choose the Japanese option.here is to choose input method for Japanese such as anthy, Nippon and so on.As I don't speak Japanese, so I don't know which one is better.

finally, run scim -d, that's all for input Japanese using scim.

There is also a input framework called ibus. You can find it in:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/misc/ibus/
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13...sc/ibus-anthy/

I don't konw which font for Japanese is better, maybe others would help you.

Totoro-kun · 12-03-2011, 08:18 AM

Thank you for a fast reply,

I went ahead and tried your suggestion. I verified that anthy, scim and scim-anthy are present on my system. Then I ran scim-setup and found all the languages enabled under IMEngines--Global setup. So I disabled all, but left Japanese enabled. Then I ran scim -d and little keyboard icon appeared in my Notification area. If i right-click on it and select input pad, another window opens and there I can see lots of Japanese characters. However I am unable to type any of them in any application. Maybe something else is missing? I have spotted some docs in the internet relating to scim, and they mention editing /etc/profile, which I did not do.

audriusk · 12-03-2011, 09:04 AM

CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT have detailed instructions to setup SCIM, you may want to check those. As for suitable fonts, Slackware already has sazanami-fonts-ttf-20040629-noarch-1 package for Japanese characters.

Sorry, but can't help you more, as I don't speak Japanese either and haven't used CJK input at all.

vharishankar · 12-03-2011, 09:06 AM

Hi, this should be useful: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/f..._AND_HINTS.TXT

Search for scim in the above document. I was kindly helped in this forum for the same issue, so I thought I'd pass it along:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...method-911639/

EDIT: OK, I didn't notice the above post before I submitted mine.

BILLYKANE · 12-03-2011, 09:19 AM

I use a bash file and add it to kde or xfce and *box start config file.Here is it:

Code:

#! /bin/sh
export XMODIFIERS="@im=SCIM"
export GTK_IM_MODULE=SCIM
export QT_IM_MODULE=SCIM
export XIM=SCIM
export XIM_PROGRAM=SCIM
export LC_CTYPE="zh_CN.UTF-8"
scim -d &

Please change it to Japanese locale.hope it would help you.

By the way, scim is an out-date software and ibus maybe a better choice.

vharishankar · 12-03-2011, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BILLYKANE

I use a bash file and add it to kde or xfce and *box start config file.Here is it:

Code:

#! /bin/sh
export XMODIFIERS="@im=SCIM"
export GTK_IM_MODULE=SCIM
export QT_IM_MODULE=SCIM
export XIM=SCIM
export XIM_PROGRAM=SCIM
export LC_CTYPE="zh_CN.UTF-8"
scim -d &

Please change it to Japanese locale.hope it would help you.

By the way, scim is an out-date software and ibus maybe a better choice.

I use ibus on my Debian system, but generally I find no difference between the two in practical terms. I can input in my native language just fine with either.

Of course, if scim is no longer being developed, then maybe ibus would be the way to go.

Alien Bob · 12-03-2011, 10:37 AM

Applications will only be able to use scim's functionality if the scim daemon is started right at the beginning when your desktop loads.

You need to run "scim -d" in your desktop environment's startup phase. For instance, in KDE, add a shell script in your "~/.kde/Autostart" directory which runs "scim.d", or use the KDE autostart manager.

Other environments like XFCE have similar mechanisms to let you automatically start an application when the desktop loads.

Eric

Totoro-kun · 12-04-2011, 06:22 AM

Good day,

Just wanted to thank everyone here for help. After following CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT scim section I ran scim-setup and then added scim -d command into XFCE session settings auto start section. Then rebooted and I had Japanese input working. So today I asked my girlfriend to test and type some Japanese text and she was pleased with the features and available input systems of scim.

So I am marking thread solved.

Many many thanks everyone