Use SCIM module by default

Thanks for your bugreport.

Can you please try the following command in a terminal (as user):
$ im-switch -s ja_JP

This should setup your user session to have the default japanese input method enabled in your session by default.

I'm considering to add a option to language-selector to have this as a gui option, but I'm not sure if I will be able to do this for dapper (time constrains).

Thanks,
 Michael

user@localhost:~$ im-switch -s ja_JP
Warning: dependency check won't work because libapt-pkg-perl isn't
installed.

Well the question was more to make the default input mode be 'SCIM
input methdod' rather than 'Default' and then let the SCIM
English/European keyboard be on by default unless locale is set to eg.
Japanese or Thai or something like it.

Thanks,
Mikael

While I'd support the objective, however I'd like to point out that there maybe issues. I've been testing scim with various applications, and it seems that scim (especially the scim-gtk-immodule) doesn't work well (or should I say doesn't work at all) with OpenOffice.org2 by default, since OO.o2 uses the X input method. However, I do remember having been successful in getting OO.o2 to work with scim, however I currently do not have access to the machine right now to be able to report on the steps needed to fulfil this objective. I request more testing of scim with OpenOffice.org2, before making scim the default IM.

I have never encountered said issues in either Ubuntu Dapper (whatever
ooffice version is in the repository ) or Gentoo ( 2.0.2 ). Nor in any
other application.

In gentoo I have done:

~/.gnomerc
{{{
LANG='en_US.utf8' scim -d
export XIM=SCIM
export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
export QT_IM_MODULE=scim
}}}

Also I've used 'uim-pref-gtk' to set the default im system wide (dunno
if this was neccesary), I don't remember if I've done anything else. I
hope it's of any help

In Breezy, the input protocol for OpenOffice.org seems to be
"unstable". For instance the Chanjei5 input method _sometimes_ won't
show the list of Chinese characters when there is more than one result
match for certain key combination: eg. "CHJF" in Chanjei5 should show
two Chinese characters but _sometimes_ it won't show any at all and
let users keep guessing whether it is a key mismatch - yet - when you
press the "2" key it will select the second result in the unshown list
mysteriously.

I am guessing it can be fixed by export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM in
~/.gnomerc or add a new config script at /etc/X11/Xsession.d/95scim.
Perhaps I could be wrong :p .

But I am switching to another IME (Oxim) written in C for now because
of the gcc C++ ABI incompatibility bug which plagued gcc 3.3.x
application such as Adobe Reader 7, REALbasic 2006 and RealPlayer for
Linux. You can workaround this but I prefer not to tweak so much every
time the issue comes out (gcc 4.1 might solve that problem but I
haven't heard about it for a long time).

Hi all,

I'm quite new to linux so I don't know in technical terms how it shoulde be done but here is what I have observed:

-I installed Daper Drake flight 6 in french.

-I added Korean and Japanese language through the admin menu

-From a French session, the only way I succeeded to input Japanese or Korean was in GEdit, by right clicking and switching the input method to SCIM

-From a Japanese or a Korean session, the SCIM input method works out of the box for all the application I have tested so far: GEdit, OpenOffice and FireFox.

Coudn't it be possible to have the SCIM input methot used by OpenOffice and FireFox for all session, just as it is for Japanese and Korean sessions?

If you need some testing to be done in Korean or Japanese, I can help.

it's quite easy to do it with im-switch:
 im-switch -z YOUR_LOCALES -s scim-anthy/scim-pinyin/scim-hangul

Thank you for the advice.
Here is comand I used and the results:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim
Warning: dependency check won't work because libapt-pkg-perl isn't installed.

I installed libapt-pkg-perl through Synaptic

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim
From the package dependency information, following packages
may be useful to install:
  scim-qtimm

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim-anthy
From the package dependency information, following packages
may be useful to install:
  "scim

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim-hangul
From the package dependency information, following packages
may be useful to install:
  "scim

I rebooted and then everything was working as I expected.
I will check on a fresh insta if the command "im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim" is enough.

Oups... I pressed the wrong key...

Just to finish my previous message:

Thank you very much, it solved my problem.

However I think it would be more user-friendy if it was done automatically.

If I understand well, on a fresh installation of dapper drake, there is some test done when a session is opened to decide if SCIM should be used as the default input method or not.

My understanding is that the current test is:
-If the language of the session uses SCIM, then use SCIM as the default input method

My suggestion is to use this test instead:
-If a language pack using SCIM was installed on the workstation, then use SCIM as the default input method

This way, SCIM will be easily available for those who needs it (i.e. the people who took time to install new language packs), but it won't annoy (with confusion, instability, or whatever problem it could bring) people who don't care.

I it can technically be done simply it would be great...

I tested it again from a fresh Dapper Flight 6 install.

Installing libapt-pkg-perl through Synaptic
and runing "im-switch -z fr_FR -s scim" from the console
allowed me to use SCIM by default on a french language session (after restarting the session).

As far as I have tested it SCIM worked well in:
-gEdit
-OpenOffice
-FireFox

ウブンツがすきです。 ( "I like Ubuntu" )

I used
$ im-switch -s scim_xim -z default

and it can launch scim_xim in any locale.

Martin, can this be done in the language packages postinst/prerm?

Matthias,

we once had scim enabled by default, and people complained about it, so we changed the packages to only activate it for languages that actually need it.

Also, language packs provide translations, it's totally inappropariate to set up keyboard stuff in their maintainer scripts. Doing it in language-support-* would be slightly better, but rather than duplicating this code over and over, it should just be done in a central place instead.

I've edited the description of Bug #34282

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/scim/+bug/34282

to make it more general and up-to-date with Dapper's current situation.

This bug could be marked as a duplicate (the problem is the same) ; I'll let it for Mikael Leiviskä or Michael Vogt to do, or I'll do it in a few days if nobody objects.

I've also added a summary of the possibilities for a central place for the user to enable scim in his own locale.

We're close to release, and that might only be perfectly solved in Dapper +1

However, I think a script linked to an icon might still be feasible, and testers that can check it before Dapper hit the shelves are far more than there were in Breezy. Considering all the hard work everyone has done to provide a good CJK input in Dapper, and considering this bug has gotten the attention of everybody involved since the first days of Dapper's development, it might be worthwile to iron this before we let the world get overwhelmed by the Drake's glory.

If a fix is committed, I could test it in 1 or 2 days (max) and I think other users concerned would be glad to help by testing too. If it's about testing a bash script, I'm voluntering too (I don't know about shell nor about programming, but I just dedicated a few partitions to test Dapper's last builds)