IBUS bug fix ... again (sigh!)

Further to https://cikitsa.blogspot.ca/2012/01/ibus-bug-fix.html, I found the same bug cropping up in Linux Mint 18.1, with IBUS 1.15.11.

Some applications don't like IBUS + m17n, and certain input mim files. For example, LibreOffice and JabRef.  Trying to type "ācārya" will give the result is "ācāry a". And in other strings, some letters are inverted: "is" becomes "si" and so forth.

Here's the fix.

Create a file called, say ibus-setting.sh with the following one-line content:

export IBUS_ENABLE_SYNC_MODE=0

Copy the file ibus-setting.sh to the directory /etc/profile.d/, like this:

sudo cp ibus-setting.sh /etc/profile.d

Make the file executable, like this:

sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/ibus-setting.sh

Logout and login again.

Phew!

This fixes the behaviour of IBUS + m17n with most applications, including LibreOffice and Java applications like JabRef.  However, some applications compiled with QT5 still have problems.  So, for example, you have to use the version of TeXStudio that is compiled with QT4, not QT5. [Update September 2018: QT5 now works fine with Ibus, so one can use the QT5 version of TeXstudio with no problem.]

ibus bug fix

Typing Sanskrit in Ubuntu Linux is normally very convenient, using the built-in ibus and m17n systems.  You can write देवनागरी or romanisation (devanāgarī) with just a switch of the keyboard input method. (Thansiang's input method for romanisation input is effective and convenient, but has to be added manually because it isn't included in the main m17n distribution.)

However, with the update to Ubuntu 11.10 in October 2011, a bug was introduced that spoiled typing for several Asian languages, for users of the standard Ubuntu Unity and Gnome windows managers.  The symptom was that as you typed a space, the letters around the cursor jumped into the wrong order. 

The November solution by fujiwarat fixed things.  But it hasn't yet made its way into the standard Ubuntu updates.  At the time of writing, you have to update your ibus installation to version 1.4.0 manually. One way to do it is here, kindly provided by Alex Lee.

March 2012 Update (gnome-shell)

Brandon Schaefer has fixed this ibus/unity bug (thanks!), but the fix will only be released in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Panglin.  Schaefer asks Oneiric users to wait a couple of months, since,

The changes would be to large and would require changes 

in both unityand nux. 

This is good for the future, but isn't great news for anyone who needs to type in an Asian language during the next two months.

And since ibus and the patch have moved along since the posting above, on 14 Jan, Alex Lee's instructions don't work any more.

The deb files that I made for myself in January, following Alex Lee's instructions are available here for a few months:

•  ibus1.4.0 for Oneiric 

Fetch the six files, put them in a directory, and run the following two commands in a terminal, in the directory containing the deb files:

• sudo apt-get remove ibus 
• sudo dpkg -i *.deb
• sudo apt-get install m17n

Log out and in for good measure, though it may not always be necessary.

Hope it works for you.  No guarantees, and no further help available from me, I'm afraid.   There has been a post suggesting that this does not work under unity (see here).  More testing required.  But it works fine for me under gnome-shell, and probably the other non-unity interfaces.

April 2012 update

All the above problems are solved in the 12.04 Precise Pangolin release of Ubuntu.  Just go with the defaults.

Furthermore, Pangolin's release now includes the input of Sanskrit roman transliteration as standard, using the IAST standard.  It's very nice.

... and now iBus

The latest release of Ubuntu, 9.10 Karmic Koala, has just come out and has replaced SCIM altogether with another system called iBus. However, everything seems to work almost identically from the user's point of view, and the tricks I mentioned earlier still make everything work. m17n also works with iBus.

LaTeX, Unicode, Kile, TeXmaker, Ubuntu Gnome, and SCIM /SKIM

I run Ubuntu GNU/Linux, with the Gnome windows manager. Kile is the most sophisticated LaTeX editor under Linux at present, and TeXmaker is also very good and has the added advantage of being cross-platform.

TeXmaker installs easily with aptitude, but Kile asks for the whole TeXlive distribution to be downloaded as dependencies. This is fine, as far as it goes. But the TeXlive distributed through aptitude is terribly out of date (2007). So it's quite reasonable to get a more recent TeXlive from TUG and install that. But then Kile still wants to install the old 2007 one through aptitude, and everything gets mess. Luckily, it's possible to fool aptitude into thinking that it's TeXlive is already installed. So now you've got Kile and and up-to-date TeXlive. Great, you think.

Until you start trying to type Unicode (you are using XeLaTeX, aren't you?).

Under GNU/Linux, you can use SCIM and the m17n input method, especially the excellent sa-translit and sa-devnag keyboard handlers to enter Unicode roman transliteration or Devanagari very quickly and easily, rapidly swapping keyboards with ctrl-space. It's great.

But Kile and TeXmaker are written using the QT toolkit, like many applications that are written for the KDE environment rather than Gnome. This means that SCIM doesn't immediately work with them. Blast.

Okay, it's deeply buried on the net, but there is an answer to this too, and it works. It's here.

Hooray! Kile, TeXmaker, TeX Live 2008, Ubuntu 9.04, Gnome, SCIM, m17n, all working fine.

I have to say, though, this should all be much easier, and should be done through aptitude.

Footnote:
After installing or uninstalling other language-related stuff in Ubuntu, sometimes iBus stops working. This can be fixed by going to System/Administration/Language Support and making sure keyboard input method is set to "ibus". Sometimes this tool also installs parts of the language support that are missing.

Also, if your writing area still give the ibus message "no input window", it can be aanecessary to right-click your mouse, select "input methods" and set "ibus".