Japanese Input Method (IME) on Kubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin?

[Kurious]

Hello!

I'm a bit knowledgeable about Kubuntu but not quite an expert yet. A long time ago I had Kubuntu 10.x and I had found how to install and configure the Japanese IME on it. Some time later, I installed Kubuntu 11.x from scratch but I could never install the Japanese IME for the same reason that I can't now on 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). I greatly appreciate if someone can help me to get it running. Note: The 12.04 installation is from scratch too. It's running very smoothly (I love how much faster it is), but the Japanese IME is the one thing I can't get right.

On 10.x I first had gone to System Settings -> Locale -> System Languages -> Set System Language -> English (United States) and Keyboard input method (on the lower right corner) set to "ibus" and "Apply". (On 12.04 I have had to use Muon to install "ibus" and restart the computer before I could see it on this menu.)

Then, I would go from there to the "Install" tab and select "Japanese"... on 10.x I would check "Input methods" and "Apply" but on 12.04 it's grayed out... how do I make it available???

There are a few things I want to mention that may help the troubleshooting. Back then I noticed that I had to UN-install one of the following two: ibus-gtk or ibus-qt4 (I forgot which is the correct one) and restart and only THEN would I get the ibus icon on the "task manager bar" at the bottom of the screen from which I could configure the Japanese IME. I think the problem was that Ubuntu would use one of the files and Kubuntu the other but for some reason both were installed and the conflict made it so that one could not access the ibus user interface. On 12.04 I checked just now (via Muon) that ibus-qt4 is installed and ibus-gtk isn't but the "Input methods" checkbox is grayed out nonetheless. Also, I had tried other non-ibus IMEs and none of them worked. SCIM didn't work either. Also, I've seen someone somewhere else on the Internet mention that one could go to System Settings -> Input Devices -> Keyboard -> Layouts -> Configure layouts to add a new keyboard layout. That's fine... and it's something that I may want to do in the future... but right now I want only the IME. For those of you who don't know, the IME lets me keep my English keyboard and type roman alphabet letters so that they can be converted to Japanese (I think via Alt-Spacebar? I forget... but that's after I can access the IME); whereas the layout configuration thing would give the keyboard the ability to act as a Japanese keyboard... which as I said, I'd love to learn about in the future, just not now.

If you've managed to read all that... thank you. Now if someone could tell me what to do on Precise Pangolin I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks again.

P.S. I know that there are quite a few Japanese-using Kubuntu users out there... if you know the solution or none of the solutions presented in this thread work for you... please post here! Thank you.

[whatthefunk]

Did you set Anthy in Keyboard Input Methods?

This is also where you configure how you change from English to Japanese.

[Kurious]

Thanks for the suggestion. I used Muon to install Anthy just now, and restarted the computer, but the interface is the same. Keyboard input methods are "none", "ibus", "lo-gtk", "th-gtk" but it does not show Anthy. On the Install tab, I selected "Japanese", and "Input methods" remains grayed out.

Hmm... I remember there being a conflict between ibus-gtk and ibus-qt4 back on 10.x... and I remember that "lo-gtk" and "th-gtk" which shows up on 12.04 did not show on 10.x... I highly suspect there's a conflict between "lo-gtk"/"th-gtk" and "ibus"... but my knowledge of this is not good enough, maybe a developer needs to look at it since I searched for "lo-gtk" and "th-gtk" on Muon and didn't see anything. Also, I'm not sure if I was supposed to have Anthy installed or not in order to have ibus and Japanese IME running under Kubuntu... it is possible that I actually had to remove it in order for everything to work but I don't remember. It seems to me that "lo-gtk" and "th-gtk" (and maybe Anthy?) are Ubuntu-specific (as opposed to Kubuntu) and when they build Kubuntu then... maybe... those should have been removed? Dunno.

[Snowhog]

Maybe the package ibus-anthy as well?

[whatthefunk]

I think youre looking at the wrong menu. This is not the System Settings > Local menu. This is the iBus Preferences menu. From the Application Launcher, go to Settings (NOT system settings), Keyboard Input Methods. You can configure it from there. Also, the first time you start this program, it should automatically start iBus and add it to your startup programs.

EDIT: If you cant find the menu Im talking about, open a terminal and do the following command to open it up:

ibus-setup

[Kurious]

From the Application Launcher, go to Settings (NOT system settings), Keyboard Input Methods.

That's interesting in both the sense that I did not expect that to be there (why can't it be inside System Settings?) and in that I remember being able to access that (on 10.x) AFTER performing all installations, not before as is the case now. In that app, when I go to the "Input Method" tab and checkmark "Customize active input methods" and click on the dropdown titled "Select an input method"... there's nothing in there. I think that's because in System Settings, I could not click to install the Japanese Input Method (the checkbox is grayed out), so there's no option here.

Now... as for ibus-anthy, I installed it and restarted the computer. There is no change in System Settings but the dropdown titled "Select an input method" does show up an entry that says "Japanese"... but it is grayed out as well...

I also noticed that on the first tab the checkbox titled "Show icon on system tray" is checkmarked, but I see no icon. (This box was also checkmarked before I installed ibus-anthy.)

[TotoAviateur]

What I did on my side to get ibus working on 12.04 and 11.10 before, is to switch the entire system to japanese, then ibus-setup will let you activate japanese IME regardless of the keyboard you want.
Then, revert to your preferred language, and usual japan ime will stay in ibus.

Does it work for you too?

[Kurious]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it just now. Above the "Input Method" checkmark that is grayed out, I clicked on the "Translations" checkmark (while the "Japanese" entry is selected, of course) and a bunch of stuff installed. I restarted the computer. Then on the System Settings -> Locale -> Languages tab I selected "Japanese" (as written in Japanese itself) and made it a preferred language and restarted again. Now everything is in Japanese... (I love this language, I love how it sounds and how it looks)... however, nothing that was grayed out before is available now, therefore, it is still the case that I can not activate the Japanese IME.

May I ask, which method did you use to switch the entire system to Japanese? Thank you.

[TotoAviateur]

If you managed to get some parts of the system windows in japanese, this should be it.
Now, when you do in your Konsol
ibus-setup
go the Input Method tab, check: 'Customize active input methods'
scroll in 'Select an input method, and you should see:
Japanese-Anthy
I assume ibus-anthy package is installed, if not please add this package;
the fact is I could not see that choice (well, I just saw japanese in grey) until I switched the system to japanese through the system settings, which is not an intuitive choice for a non-japanese user....

[TotoAviateur]

Of course, in this IBus Preferences window, you need to click the '+Add' button, so that Japanese-Anthy now appears in the Input Method window

[Kurious]

In the Muon Package Manager, I clicked "By Status" (on the left) and then "Installed", and then I typed "anthy" in the text box towards the top (above the big list), and I can see that I have the following four Anthy-related packages: anthy, anthy-common, ibus-anthy, libanthy0.

I forgot to mention that in System Settings -> Locale -> System Languages -> (third tab... I forgot how it is in English now that my system is in Japanese) I had selected Japanese (as written in Japanese) and "ibus" and clicked "Apply". I had also restarted and I did it again now just in case.

When I go to the "Keyboard Input Methods" app (aka "IBus Preferences" window) -> "Input Method" tab -> "Customize active input methods" is checkmarked -> "Select an input method" has a Japanese entry (as written in Japanese) grayed out... and the +Add button is grayed out too.

Was your installation of 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) made from scratch or have you been updating since 10.x -> 11.x -> 12.04? My installation was made from scratch regarding both 11.x and 12.04.

[TotoAviateur]

12.04 64bits installed from scratch, as the upgrade did not work properly.

I have the same anthy related packages as you.
Can you check your ibus packages as well, this is what I have on my side:
Ibus
ibus-qt4
libibus-qt1
python-ibus
ibus-gtk:i386
ibus-anthy

If you have the same packages, I can't see why an ibus-setup would not allow you to add Japanese-Anthy

[Kurious]

Well, I don't have ibus-gtk:i386 because my 12.04 is 32-bits, not 64-bits. However, I found "ibus-gtk" and "ibus-gtk3". I installed both and restarted, but the problem persists. I also noticed that I have "libibus-1.0-0" which I had installed but you didn't show on your list.

Maybe the problem is 32-bit specific? I remember having very similar issues on 11.x and never being able to resolve them. (But back then I didn't post a thread like this. I just tried as much as I could.)

[TotoAviateur]

Yes, I have also
libibus-qt1
libibus-1.0-0

the issue should not come from 32 or 64 bits.
A japanese speaker who installs a basic english version of kubuntu, should be able to install any japanese add-ons from there.
When you are in the Ibus Preferences Window, in the Input Method tab, scroll in Select an input methods, click on Japanese (even if it looks grey) and you should see Japanese-Anthy,

[TotoAviateur]

You need actually to click on the sign '>' in the '> Japanese' grey submenu of 'Select an Input methods' to make Japanese-Anthy appear.
Clicking on 'Japanese' does not work