SCIM input not possible in Pidgin

[Jonathan Lumb]

Binary package hint: pidgin

Using SCIM for Chinese input works fine in most applications in Karmic (Alpha 4) but when I open a chat window in Pidgin and try and activate SCIM for Chinese text input the input box does not appear on the screen and I am only able to type English text. I have also tried right clicking in the chat window and selecting SCIM as the input method - but to no avail.

I remember that a similar (or the same) bug existed in the Ubuntu 8.xx series distributions but was fixed somewhere along the line. It seems that it has reappeared in Karmic!

I managed to find a workaround for the time-being in a similar bug in the Redhat Bugzilla - https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=484607

1. Open a terminal
2. Enter the following line of code and hit enter: export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim pidgin
3. Run Pidgin from the same terminal
4. SCIM now works flawlessly in Pidgin for that particular session

This is a major issue as many Chinese users will want to use Pidgin to communicate with friends in Chinese and must use SCIM to do so.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Aug 30 21:42:19 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/pidgin
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: pidgin 1:2.5.8-1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=zh_CN.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-8.28-generic
SourcePackage: pidgin
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-8-generic i686

[executorvs (executorvs)]

I provided the following to the scim bug tracker:
under both Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10 alpha it is not possible to use any scim
input methods. similar bugs have been filed in several places:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=484607
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=477918
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/421637 some mention
has been made in the forums of fixes that seemed to work in ubuntu 8.10
which no longer seem to work in 9.04 or 9.10 they are mentioned at
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7950903.

I am not sure what to provide you. if you let me know I will do my best to
get you what I can.

I do not know if it is a pidgin problem or a scim problem but I would be happy to provide any information I can to get it solved.

[Jonathan Lumb (jonolumb)]

strange... no longer seems to be a problem now.

has a fix been released or could it have been another updated package that fixed this issue?

[executorvs (executorvs)]

still doesn't work in my 32 bit jaunty. karmic broke so I'm not sure if it works there now. what release are you testing it under?

[BlueT - Matthew Lien - 練喆明 (bluet)]

I got the same problem on 64bit jaunty,
running in terminal was fine but no longer work for now....
I got these message in terminal everytime I hit ctrl-space.

Failed to receive messages at scim_bridge_client_read_and_dispatch ()
An IOException at scim_bridge_client_handle_key_event ()
An IOException at filter_key_event ()
An IOException at key_snooper ()

[Jonathan Lumb (jonolumb)]

I have now upgraded to Karmic Alpha 6 which uses Ibus as the default text entry tool, I haven't tested SCIM but Ibus works much better, is more intuitive and doesn't have any issues with Pidgin.

[Kremlin (aaron-introspection)]

I have this issue with Ibus and Pidgin; when I go to select the input option it merely says "No Input Window" in the Ibus menu.

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test a current, supported, Ubuntu version. Thanks in advance