17.10: No input method for CJK languages

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement]

After an installation in Chinese there is no input method activated and no way to enter Chinese characters.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-11.12-generic 4.13.1
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-11-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Sep 27 11:29:53 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-03 (1484 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64 (20130902)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1719938

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I could reproduce this with the 2017-09-26 ISO.

$ cat /etc/default/keyboard
XKBLAYOUT=se
BACKSPACE=guess
$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources
[('xkb', 'se')]

However, IBus was up and running (as it should be for all users) and the necessary input methods had been installed. Hence I could go to "Region & Language", add the "Chinese (SunPinyin)" input source, switch to it, and instantly start typing Chinese characters.

But I suppose the idea is that some Chinese input method should be enabled to start with...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Gunnar, here on an updated artful system only "chinese" is listed in the gnome-control-center interface, not "chinese (sunpinyin)" (after installing the chinese support from language-selector). The shell UI lists "chinese zh" but selecting it doesn't give access to ibus input method nor the completion UI and typing just gives a qwerty layout

ibus-sunpinyin is installed but in ibus-setup the input tab only lists french so it looks like ibus didn't get correctly setup by GNOME when selected

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

@Sebastien: What if you click "Chinese" in the input source GUI, then doesn't it expand to the actual input methods available? (That's what happened for me.)

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Btw, I think you need to relogin (or possibly reboot) after having installed the Chinese language support, if those packages were not installed by the installer.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I verified on 16.04 both on the live session and an installed system there is an indicator to select the method of input when I select simplified Chinese in the list of languages. There is no input method selected by default but it's trivial to click on the indicator and select the one I want.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Right, so the current behaviour is not an Ubuntu bug but how current GNOME behaves. They believe it's not possible to "guess" what input method an user for a defined locale is going to need and don't want to have a cluttered menu with a bunch of options which the user is not going to need.

The recommended way to set it up on the installed system is to use gnome-initial-setup on first login (which we don't do in Ubuntu), that wouldn't resolve the installer/live cd cases though where the user is just going to need to use the settings to configure it.

That's not a simple fix but something we need to give more consideration to next cycle, I'm lowering the importance and unassigning, it's not likely we change anything for artful now.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

@Jean-Baptiste: Can you please show us the output of these commands on a 16.04 Chinese install:

cat /etc/default/keyboard

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

cat /etc/default/keyboard
# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="cn"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources
[('xkb', 'cn'), ('xkb', 'us'), ('fcitx', 'pinyin')]

[Mitsuya Shibata (cosmos-door)]

Before artful, unity-settings-daemon (based on gnome-settings-daemon) setup input sources by locale.
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~unity-settings-daemon-team/unity-settings-daemon/trunk/view/head:/plugins/keyboard/gsd-keyboard-manager.c#L505

However already commented, this code in gnome-settings-daemon are replaced by gnome-initial-setup.
https://github.com/GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon/commit/912c41a1b729d635d3b335c87653141781e9be9e

If Ubuntu doesn't use gnome-intial-setup, should be engine_from_locale() reindroduced?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Reverting that change for artful makes sense yes

[Mitsuya Shibata (cosmos-door)]

I created patch. This patch will fix but #1514544 too.
Building patched package is completed successfully. I'll test the package after tomorrow.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "initial-setup-input-sources.patch" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

[Ikuya Awashiro (ikuya-fruitsbasket)]

Hi Mitsuya, thank you for your great work.

gnome-settings-daemon 3.26.1-0ubuntu2 was released with similar patch.
This issue was almost fixed.
"almost" means I find an issue and file a bug as #1722681.

[Mitsuya Shibata (cosmos-door)]

> gnome-settings-daemon 3.26.1-0ubuntu2 was released with similar patch.

Thank you for your information.
I confirmed it and close this ticket.

Thanks!