Unable to type in Arabic

[Amr Ahmed]

hello

I am using an HP Pavillion 2530 laptop. The laptop was bought in the Middle East and has both Latin and Arabic characters on its keyboard. The keyboard model (as detected automatically on both Gutsy and Hardy 8.04) is "Generic 105-key (Intl) PC".

Before switching from Gutsy to Hardy Heron 8.04 (fresh installation - main language: USA English) I was able to type Latin and Arabic characters on any kind of format (OO.org writer, Stardict, Firefox, etc) by clicking on the keyboard indicator. To do this, I simply had to update the language support (without downloading the Arabic package), add Arabic to the keyboard's layout (system.preferences.keyboard>layout) as well as to OO.org writer (tools.options.language settings).

On Hardy 8.04 this is not working. Wherever I need to write in Arabic (and click on the keyboard indicator)...all I get is Latin characters. All the settings are as they were in Gutsy. I tried to download the Arabic package from system>administration>language support, and found some SCIM program sitting on my deskbar. If I'm on an OO.org writer documents, it works like the keyboard indicator - so in theory I can use it there to type Arabic. Anywhere else, though (internet browser, dictionaries, etc) it doesn't work.

If I use SCIM to write in Arabic on an OO.org writer doc, though, it's a complete disaster. At least one third of the keys on the keyboard do not input an Arabic character at all - some strange symbols come up instead. In short: it can't be used to type Arabic. I then tried to the following things, to no avail:

- uninstall the Arabic package from language support
- unclick "enable support to enter complex character" on language support
- a combination of these two + using keybord indicator instead of SCIM and the other way around for each combination.

This is a serious issue, and I'd be extremely grateful if a solution is found. Please let me know if there's anything you need to know to solve this.

Many thanks for taking the time to go through this.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

First, this is not a SCIM problem. The Arabic (Egypt) input method in SCIM seems to use a different keyboard layout than you have.

Second, I cannot reproduce this bug. I can type Arabic just fine in any application by using the keyboard layout switcher.
Even without the Arabic language support installed, I just added the Arabic - Default layout to the keyboard, started an application, switched to Arabic in the keyboard layout switcher applet and was able to type Arabic.

My guess is that your system somehow got messed up.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

BTW: are you using a Gnome desktop or KDE3/4?

[Amr Ahmed (al-adab)]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm on a Gnome desktop.

It's possible to type in Arabic if I do the following:

1) remove Arabic package from language support
2) unclick "enable complex characters" from language support
3) remove "Arabic" from keyboard>layout
4) add "Arabic to keyboard>layout

The thing is that every time I re-boot the machine I have to go through steps 3) and 4) to be able to type in Arabic. Why are my settings at keyboard>layout lost the moment I turn the machine off?

Thanks again for your support.

[Amr Ahmed (al-adab)]

Hello,

I was wondering if there's really no solution to this. There must be a way to reproduce this bug. I still have to go through steps 3) and 4) if I want to type in Arabic. The keyboard settings as to language layout are simply lost the moment I re-boot the machine.

Please help. Thanks.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

I have really no idea why your keyboard settings are lost...
It works fine for me on a clean Hardy install, no problems with this at all...

Did you upgrade from Gutsy or did you do a clean Hardy installation?

If you upgraded from Gutsy during the Hardy development cycle, it may be that there is some remaining cruft on your system.

Shooting into the darkness, you could try the following:

1. im-switch -a
2. im-switch -z all_ALL -a
3. sudo im-switch -a
4. sudo im-switch -z all_ALL -a

That should disable scim once and for all.
If your keyboard still doesn't work as expected after that, we'll need to try something else...

[cofeineSunshine (cofeinesunshine)]

I have the same problem with lithuanian (LT, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania) layout. The fix is the same.
The problem reproduces when you fix it and reboot computer.
At this point you "can change layout" with mouse(by clicking on keyboard indicator) but the letters are the same as with old layout, so, it's broken!.
Layout changing shortcut doesn't work too.

After removing and adding layout it works(by changing with mouse, or by layout change shortcut)!!!

This begun when I using update-manger updated my os from Gutsy to Hardy.
During update there were no problems at all.

[cofeineSunshine (cofeinesunshine)]

interesting info: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/173721

[medmediani (medmediani)]

Hello guys,
I am having exactly the same problem. In fact, it is the second computer behaving like this for me.
First, the fresh Hardy on my new desktop at home, two months ago. I got this problem with the Arabic keyboard. At that time, I thought that was only due to some misconfiguration or something. I lived with that deleting and re-adding the Arabic layout each time I boot. Yesterday, I installed Hardy again on my new laptop and again I got the same problem. Both installations were fresh and not upgraded.
Is there any solution for this problem yet?

[medmediani (medmediani)]

Sorry,,
I have just remembered that I fixed this last time by adding the Arabic layout to xorg.conf file. Again, this solves the problem for the new computer as well.
Cheers

[informiloud (contact-informiloud)]

Hi,
Also got this problem on a customer's notebook, with a fresh hardy 8.04 install.
I lost a precious time before finding the solution...
Fixed by adding ar to the xorg.conf file.
I don't know if this problem still appears in 8.04.1 but it's really serious for the arabic writing users!

[Michele Mangili (mangilimic)]

Hello,

does anybody know if this issue is still present in the latest ubuntu release?

Maybe this report is somehow related to this upstream bug report? http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511771

Thanks

[medmediani (medmediani)]

It is not a problem anymore,
I upgraded to entrepid successfully without any keyboard problems

> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:46:32 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 238849] Re: Unable to type in Arabic
>
> Hello,
>
> does anybody know if this issue is still present in the latest ubuntu
> release?
>
> Maybe this report is somehow related to this upstream bug report?
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511771
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> Unable to type in Arabic
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/238849
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “scim” source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> hello
>
> I am using an HP Pavillion 2530 laptop. The laptop was bought in the Middle East and has both Latin and Arabic characters on its keyboard. The keyboard model (as detected automatically on both Gutsy and Hardy 8.04) is "Generic 105-key (Intl) PC".
>
> Before switching from Gutsy to Hardy Heron 8.04 (fresh installation - main language: USA English) I was able to type Latin and Arabic characters on any kind of format (OO.org writer, Stardict, Firefox, etc) by clicking on the keyboard indicator. To do this, I simply had to update the language support (without downloading the Arabic package), add Arabic to the keyboard's layout (system.preferences.keyboard>layout) as well as to OO.org writer (tools.options.language settings).
>
> On Hardy 8.04 this is not working. Wherever I need to write in Arabic (and click on the keyboard indicator)...all I get is Latin characters. All the settings are as they were in Gutsy. I tried to download the Arabic package from system>administration>language support, and found some SCIM program sitting on my deskbar. If I'm on an OO.org writer documents, it works like the keyboard indicator - so in theory I can use it there to type Arabic. Anywhere else, though (internet browser, dictionaries, etc) it doesn't work.
>
> If I use SCIM to write in Arabic on an OO.org writer doc, though, it's a complete disaster. At least one third of the keys on the keyboard do not input an Arabic character at all - some strange symbols come up instead. In short: it can't be used to type Arabic. I then tried to the following things, to no avail:
>
> - uninstall the Arabic package from language support
> - unclick "enable support to enter complex character" on language support
> - a combination of these two + using keybord indicator instead of SCIM and the other way around for each combination.
>
> This is a serious issue, and I'd be extremely grateful if a solution is found. Please let me know if there's anything you need to know to solve this.
>
> Many thanks for taking the time to go through this.

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[Michele Mangili (mangilimic)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status . Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.