Ubuntu – Japanese input on 16.04 with Fcitx and Mozc

16.04fcitxibusjapanesemozc

Typing Japanese on Ubuntu used to mean ibus-mozc, but ibus-mozc has been less and less maintained since 2015:

Ubuntu 15.10 is supposed to start using Fcitx rather than ibus as their default input method (input method framework), which is another reason for me to hesitate to spend my time to improve ibus-mozc

This official documentation page claims that Fcitx has become the default:

Recommended frameworks for input methods are IBus and Fcitx. The latter is the default framework in Ubuntu for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

This claim is disputed, but even if not default, now after upgrading from 2015.10 to 2016.04 ibus-mozc has a problem that makes it unusable for me, so I would like to switch to fcitx-mozc.

QUESTION: How to switch Ubuntu 2016.04 from ibus-mozc to fcitx-mozc?
I see a fcitx-mozc 16.04 package, but I guess there is more to do than just installing the package? What is the recommended procedure?

Best Answer

Install Japanese. One of the installed packages is fcitx-mozc.
Close Language Support and open it again.
Select fcitx as the Keyboard input method system.
Log out and log in again.
Click the icon at the very right of the menu bar and select System Settings.
In the Personal section, click Text Entry.
Click the + button, select Mozc (Fcitx), and click Add.

More info

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to set iBus default input method in 14.04

Just use setxkbmap when you want to switch to the US keyboard. Ex:

setxkbmap us

I've created a desktop shortcut icon to help me switch keyboard layouts because of Ibus language problems. Just edit a file named layout.desktop in $HOME/Desktop and make it executable. Here is an example for getting back to a US keyboard layout:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=Keymap US
Comment=
Exec=setxkbmap us
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false

Ubuntu – Japanese (Mozc) Wrong Keyboard Layout

I think that David provided a useful hint. ibus-mozc does not seem to provide a GUI for controlling the keyboard layout used together with Mozc, but you can edit the file /usr/share/ibus/component/mozc.xml:

--- /usr/share/ibus/component/mozc.xml.orig
+++ /usr/share/ibus/component/mozc.xml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
   <icon_prop_key>InputMode</icon_prop_key>
   <icon>/usr/share/ibus-mozc/product_icon.png</icon>
   <setup>/usr/lib/mozc/mozc_tool --mode=config_dialog</setup>
-  <layout>default</layout>
+  <layout>jp</layout>
   <name>mozc-jp</name>
   <longname>Mozc</longname>
 </engine>

Or in plain English:

Replace the line

  <layout>default</layout>

with

  <layout>jp</layout>

With that change (and after a relogin), Japanese (Mozc) will always be based on the basic Japanese keyboard layout, irrespective of which keyboard layout you switched from when enabling Japanese (Mozc). Hence you can add e.g. the German layout without it affecting your use of Japanese (Mozc).

HTH

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to set iBus default input method in 14.04

Ubuntu – Japanese (Mozc) Wrong Keyboard Layout

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