14.04 Chinese Ibus Input - No Options

Question

getting my new 14.04 rig going ;-) Pretty happy with it, everything seems to be working great.

For Chinese input, however, having a problem. I went through the typical steps, open language in settings, let it install some stuff, then add Chinese and choose Ibus. Then, after logging in and out, I see the language icon in my system tray.

However, when I go to add the Chinese into Ibus, it only lets me choose "Chinese", which isn't an input method. It should give me a bunch of choices like pinyin, bopomo or whatever, I only use pinyin so don't know those names.

I saw someone online had a little command which helped people with similar problems, but it did not work for me, even after a re-start.

So, anyone got a solution?

Edit: Here is what it looks like, just "Chinese" in the list, when there should be a bunch of input options like pinyin, potomofo, and so on.

Solution 1

1. I think you need to open Language Support and install Chinese(simplifed or traditional)

2. You can try to install Chinese input method manually

sudo apt-get install ibus-pinyin 
sudo apt-get install ibus-sunpinyin

3. Restart IBus daemon

ibus restart

4. Then you can find Chinese(pinyin) input method in Text Entry Setting.

Hope this is helpful.

Solution 2

Got it! I am so stupid haha...

Just run ibus-setup, that will get ibus going and you can choose your input method.

So simple...and I will never get that hour back ;-)

But it does seem buggy to be honest.

Solution 3

Once the Ibus-Pinyin installed, the ibus-setup is not even necessary, just chose in the language list "Chinese Pinyin" instead of "Chinese". Once installed, you can configure it easily from language choice list or from the Pinyin icon.

I wasted a lot of time on this question, I hope you'll get it quickly.

Comments

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

Which Ubuntu distro are you on? Especially if you are on standard Ubuntu, you may want to read help.ubuntu.com/14.04/ubuntu-help/keyboard-layouts.html

[chrisA]

Thank you for the advice, I am on 14.04 64 bit, standard. Its weird because ibus-pinyin is installed, but I don't get the option.

[chrisA]

ibus address returns (null)...I feel so stupid now what am I missing.

[Admin]

Sigh...I am having the same problem...

[chrisA]

Yeah it never occurred to me that using the gnome-fallback package would interfere with the dialog. I am on Mint 17 now, and its no problem to set up at all.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

It sounds to me as if you have missed that you are supposed to use System Settings -> Text Entry instead of ibus-setup. Did you read the document I linked to?

[chrisA]

Thanks to both of you in advance. Ok both of you are talking about Text Entry Settings, and maybe I am being dense, but the picture I provide above is the Text Entry Settings. I can put Chinese in there, but it is just Chinese, no input method like pinyin or anything. I have installed Chinese in languages, then I go to Text Entry...and add Chinese...and then nothing, no entry. Only Ibus itself is asking me what type of Chinese entry I want to use. Still, I guess I am doing something wrong, Ibus isn't working right.

[chrisA]

Thanks for your patience. I replied above to Gino. That pic I put in the question is Text Entry. I have Chinese there, but no specific input.

[chrisA]

So, you say I will have pinyin there in Text Entry, (and I am glad for the confirmation about that), but for some reason, I don't. See picture above pls.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

@RhZ: Ok, now I see. Indeed the installed IM engines should appear there. Even if it should be sufficient to log out and re-login after installing an engine, have you tried to reboot?

[chrisA]

Ok I think its getting better. Before, I was missing the engine entirely, now I have an engine with a million different options. However, when I go to choose, its still not there.

[chrisA]

I tried uninstalling Chinese and restarting, then I checked, the engine had 3 options, but when I re-installed now the options are only 2 (google which I had downloaded and sun), but not the regular pinyin. So it changed when I installed Chinese. I think this may be because I am in China, it recognized my locale and gave me Chinese automatically...I wish they would just stop messing with people. If I wanted a localized system I would have asked for it...

[chrisA]

Yeah this is a broader issue. Every option in my Ibus engine is ok to choose except Chinese. I have to purge the Chinese from my system first I guess. I may reinstall. Thanks again for the support!

[chrisA]

Ok Gino I will try. I had a break as this is a little frustrating. But overall I am very happy with 14.04, once I get rid of Unity which I dislike. Thanks!

[chrisA]

yes you are right. But I think I ran into a bug. But its all good now

[xji]

I think OP most likely has solved the issue. Just to add a note here for those who were having the same problem: You'll have to log out/restart after you've installed the input methods. They won't appear in the same session after installation.