Can't change from iBus to fcitx

Question

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 with GNOME, and I'd like to use use fcitx instead of iBus because I usually type East Asian languages. I installed the fcitx package, went into Language Support, and changed "keyboard input method system" to fcitx. However, after I reboot, I still get the iBus input method menu. How can I finally get rid of iBus and switch fully to fcitx?

(Please do not convince me to stay with iBus; Sun Pinyin and ibus-mozc are virtually unusable.)

Solution

I have also encountered such a problem. The root cause is that Ubuntu switch to GNOME since 17.10 and GNOME may not support fcitx well at present. The following scripts may be helpful to you:

Step 1 check fcitx be installed

sudo apt install fcitx fcitx-mozc

Step 2 open ~/.pam_environment with your text editor and set the following environment variables to start fcitx

XMODIFIERS DEFAULT=@im=fcitx
GTK_IM_MODULE DEFAULT=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE DEFAULT=fcitx

Step 3 add an autostart entry to start fcitx. Search "Startup applications Preferences" in Ubuntu Activities and add an entry for fcitx

Name: Fcitx
Command: /usr/bin/fcitx-autostart
Comment: type your favorite description for fcitx

Step 4 reboot and check if fcitx wake up

See more details in this document: https://www.csslayer.info/wordpress/fcitx-dev/how-to-use-fcitx-on-ubuntu-17-10/

Comments

[Kl3m Michard]

I can't comment yet... How did you manage to make it work ? I'm desperately trying to make things work, tried everything I could find on the net, nothing seems to work. The link to the post where I link all the things I've tried Thanks you in any case

[Kevin Bowen]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.