Setting up SCIM
 

I recall that you have to add something to your .xinitrc file to get SCIM to start when X does, but I forgot what it was. Does anybody else know?

Also, I can't seem to be able to read any Japanese character sets with UTF at the moment; should I be concerned?

I got everything installed, but Ctrl+Space doesn't activate it.

Also, even with the FrontEnd Gtk font set to Code2000, it can't display the Unicode. The same font works in Firefox. What's going on?

I wrote a howto recently that should explain how to do it.

http://killerbob.ca/howto/japanese.html

がんばってね。
(and I know you can't read that. it's because you don't have a Japanese font installed. That is also explained in the howto. :))

Actually, I've recently installed Arial Unicode MS and Code2000, so I can read it. (Isn't Code2000 the coolest?)

From past experience I've found that adding "scim -d" to .xinitrc also works; it loads completely and is operable within at least KDE.

NOTE: Beaver still complains abotu the "not supported" language when I enter Ctrl+Space. Do you think that the fact I'm using FVWM2-devel at the moment has something to do with it?

If you install skim, KDE will load it automatically. You don't need to load it from .xinitrc or anything else.

As for FVWM, I honestly don't know. I tried it once, a while ago, and decided I didn't like it, and haven't even considered it since. Likewise, I've never used Beaver, so I can't answer that question. :(

I have SCIM started as a daemon and the icon in the system tray, yet it still won't come up with the trigger hotkeys. What's going on?

Did you edit the exports in /etc/profile.d/lang.sh?

You need these variables to be set, as well, else the IM won't actually be used, even if it's installed.

I copied it into /etc/profile.d/lang.sh, and it still doesn't work.

Have you tried other WM's, or just FVWM?

And do you have Anthy installed? SCIM is useless without a language system installed. For Japanese, you need Anthy.

You've to relogin so those exports take effect.

I do have Anthhy and SCIM-Anthy installed. I've been trying it on KDE-3.4.0 for the past 24 hours or so. It does work with Skim, though.

For some reason, it doesn't seem to allow typing within the current window. It either uses a little side window that pops up or doesn't display until "space". How do I set it up so the Romaji and typing appear in the text area I'm typing in?

You need to enable On-The-Fly mode, which will require a logout/login to take effect.

Right-click on your SCIM/SKIM icon in the system tray, and go to SCIM setup. Under Front End, go to X Window. Check the box that says "On The Fly". Apply, OK, Close, etc.

Logout, and log back in, and it should work.

I have "On the Spot" enabled, and I just did reboot the system. Still, without the window option enabled, it doesn't enter the text dirlectly into the text area.

Maybe somewhat OT, but:

I don't recall ever installing Japanese fonts, and I can see this just fine (using Firefox, Slackware -current, dropline Gnome). Is this not normal?

The font may have been installed by your Gnome installation... I know from experience that a regular installation of Slackware (at least, my regular installation that doesn't include 100% of the packages) doesn't do it. When you don't have the font installed, instead you see squares with 4 numbers in 'em, and the way to fix it is to install a font that supports the language.