Dead keys (accents) stopped working after upgrading to Ubuntu 16.04

Question

Dead keys for accents (like â, è, ç) stopped working in LibreOffice and Pidgin after I upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04.

Solution 1

To fix, I used ibus-setup in a terminal and followed instructions. It went back to normal.

Solution 2

This issue is better solved by the next input:

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$ ibus-daemon --xim

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And, also activating this Keyboard input method system in the System preferences - Language Support:

Keyboard input method system => XIM

The reason is that, when a language has complex characters like "à", the "Ibus" always generates problems, even to the "very known" non Gnome applications like Skype and Microsoft Office-PlayOnLinux. The typical error is that appears "`a" instead of "à".

My recommendation is that you add the "ibus-daemon --xim" as Startup Application in order to forget this issue forever.

Solution 3

I got this problem after updating my Debian testing system with XFCE desktop. I solved it this way:

1. Click on XFCE -> Settings -> IBus Preferences
2. Click 'yes' on the dialog whether you want to start the IBus daemon

Comments

[Admin]

Instead of editing the answer into your text, it would be better to click the check mark on the answer that solved your problem.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

Hi, @dsimard, and thanks for sharing. However, it sounds as a bug to me, and it would be great if you could provide more details, so it possibly can be fixed for everyone. (It should be said that there is normally no need to start ibus-setup on Ubuntu nowadays. Whatever you did - not clear to me - sounds like a workaround.)

[dsimard]

I can give more details but I guess that situation is very exceptional. - I upgraded from 14.10 - I remember having the same problem when I upgraded to 14.10 two years ago. There was an option somewhere about ibus and I clicked it (don't remember if I checked or unchecked the box) - I recently upgraded to 16.04 with a keyboard setting at French (Canada) by default - The accents with dead keys (example : typing ` and then e to have è) stopped working in Pidgin and LibreOffice. Everything else I tried was fine. I'm not sure which details you would need. Let me know if it helps

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

I switched to French (Canada) on my 16.04, and the dead keys worked as expected in LibreOffice directly, so I couldn't reproduce the problem. It may be due to some leftover in your $HOME (please note that 14.10 has been unsupported for quite some time, and there is no official upgrade path from 14.10 to 16.04 - might also be related).

[Luis Masuelli]

I have the same problem with my spanish keyboards. upgraded from 15.10 to 16.04

[Luis Masuelli]

The fix works but... I have to do that everytime I boot. How can I fix it once for good?

[Joao Tavora]

I had the same problem, but i didn't upgrade from any version, it happened on a fresh Ubuntu MATE 16.04 install.

[Skippy le Grand Gourou]

Many thanks for posting this question/answer ! I figured ibus was simply not installed on a fresh Xubuntu 16.04, installing it and running ibus-setup fixed the issue.

[Per Lundberg]

Didn't work for me. Do you need to restart anything after making this change? (Using Debian buster/bullseye for the record)

[Per Lundberg]

Thanks. The ibus suggestions hasn't worked for me so tried this now, will see next time I restart X if it helped or not. :)