HOWTO: Fix SCIM in Gutsy/Hardy

[terrukallan]

Note: Based on Michal77's post here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3676161&postcount=6).

The default setup of SCIM on Gutsy and Hardy produces some irritating errors including the inability to rename files in Nautilus (Gutsy), inability to type jump to files in Nautilus by typing the first few letters (Hardy), and Firefox 3's URL matching in the location bar lagging by a character (Hardy). There are quite likely others, but these are the ones I have personally experienced.

All of these problems can be fixed by installing scim-bridge and using that instead of xim.

To install scim-bridge on Gutsy:
sudo apt-get install scim-bridge


To install scim-bridge on Hardy:
sudo apt-get install scim-bridge-agent scim-bridge-client-gtk scim-bridge-client-qt scim-bridge-client-qt4

Now open the scim config file:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/scim
and chage the following lines:

GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
QT_IM_MODULE=xim

to:

GTK_IM_MODULE="scim-bridge"
QT_IM_MODULE="scim-bridge"


Restarting SCIM is not sufficient so restart X either by restarting the computer (System->Quit->Restart) or hitting [CTL][ALT].

[B]WARNING: [CTL][ALT][BACKSPACE] will immediately log out and restart X. Make sure to save anything important before doing this.

[Abiezer]

Many thanks! I upgraded yesterday to find SCIM not working; having read about the change in default hotkeys I fiddled around with that for ages thinking that was my problem, but your fix has sorted everything. It seems every upgrade breaks SCIM :(
现在是升级之后第一次能打中文！非常感谢！

[xand]

Thanks for this, i had a problem with that too posted here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4822346#post4822346.

I had already tried your how-to, but it didn't work without the step of deleting '.scim' and '.xinit.d' folders before restarting X. Hope this can be a helpful step for people with HH like me.

[tacutu]

isn't it easier to just do:

im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge

instead of editing the files?
(instead of all_ALL you can also select the desired locale)

this can be done as user, for a user-based setup or as root, for system-wide defaults.

[cchi]

isn't it easier to just do:

im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge

instead of editing the files?
(instead of all_ALL you can also select the desired locale)

this can be done as user, for a user-based setup or as root, for system-wide defaults.

Yes, in Ubuntu 8.04 this was all I needed to do too. Thank you!

Interestingly, SCIM was working fine for the admin user that I installed Japanese Input Support with. But, for any other users, including users where I created them after installing Japanese support, SCIM was not enabled.

The above command run in the other users' accounts worked a treat.

[huczek]

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron x86
Firefox 3 beta 5 and Firefox 3 RC
output in terminal: errors while firefox running
(firefox:6773): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_draw_image: assertion `GDK_IS_GC (gc)' failed

(firefox:6773): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
The firefox often interrupts and exits. I've changed the SCIM using: im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge
and I have still the same problem:
Segmentation fault

[dmizer]

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron x86
Firefox 3 beta 5 and Firefox 3 RC
output in terminal: errors while firefox running
(firefox:6773): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_draw_image: assertion `GDK_IS_GC (gc)' failed

(firefox:6773): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
The firefox often interrupts and exits. I've changed the SCIM using: im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge
and I have still the same problem:
Segmentation fault

this problem is not related to scim, it's probably related to a firefox add-on of some kind. try disabling your add-ons one by one until the problem disappears. if it does not, please start a new thread.

[huczek]

Well it looks like problem with flash player. After uninstalling and disabling of all add-ons. Still I have the problem. I have changed player to the default 9 in ubuntu with/without library flash support. Now I have the error after closing tab with site using flash content i.e.:
http://at-tic.com
http://www.websearchfactory.pl
http://www.myspace.com/stevepageot

After changing of plugin from 10 beta to default 9 - the error looks like:
(firefox:5996): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
I also turned off loading of module-x11-xsmp into PulseAudio.

Maybe it has something to do with SCIM?

It seems I still can't use a flash player. That's a disaster. I tried all advices I had found on the forum. There's no information about the error "g_object_unref: assertion" on Internet.

[dmizer]

Well it looks like problem with flash player. After uninstalling and disabling of all add-ons. Still I have the problem. I have changed player to the default 9 in ubuntu with/without library flash support. Now I have the error after closing tab with site using flash content i.e.:
http://at-tic.com
http://www.websearchfactory.pl
http://www.myspace.com/stevepageot

After changing of plugin from 10 beta to default 9 - the error looks like:
(firefox:5996): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
I also turned off loading of module-x11-xsmp into PulseAudio.

Maybe it has something to do with SCIM?

It seems I still can't use a flash player. That's a disaster. I tried all advices I had found on the forum. There's no information about the error "g_object_unref: assertion" on Internet.

if you've run this command:
im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge
or followed the directions in the first post ... then no, it doesn't have anything to do with scim.

are you running 64 bit ubuntu?

[huczek]

after using im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge it returns nothing. With sudo it returns:

kononowicz@anin:~$ sudo im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge
[sudo] password for kononowicz:
update-alternatives: Cannot find alternative `/etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/scim-bridge'.
I installed scim bridge and edited manually scim like described in the first post.

I use x86 32bit hardy heron lts.

[dmizer]

after using im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge it returns nothing. With sudo it returns:

kononowicz@anin:~$ sudo im-switch -z all_ALL -s scim-bridge
[sudo] password for kononowicz:
update-alternatives: Cannot find alternative `/etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/scim-bridge'.
I installed scim bridge and edited manually scim like described in the first post.

I use x86 32bit hardy heron lts.

running it as user never returns results. it simply changes the im-switch setting to scim for all packages on the system. if the problem disappears when you remove flash, then you should look into possible solutions for flash plugin. which plugin are you using for flash?

[huczek]

if the problem disappears when you remove flash, then you should look into possible solutions for flash plugin. which plugin are you using for flash?

I'm not so sure if it is just the plugin.

As I have written I used adobe flash player 10 beta and returned to the default. So now it's a nonfree Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124.0ubuntu2.
As I have also written I tried with and without libflashsupport.
Firefox 3 beta 5 and Firefox 3 RC1.

[dmizer]

the errors you posted earlier:
(firefox:6773): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_draw_image: assertion `GDK_IS_GC (gc)' failed

(firefox:6773): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
these are related to gtk. are you running a custom theme in firefox, or in gnome?

[huczek]

No. I run default gnome theme - human.
I had turned off all the possible add-ons to check source of errors. The errors are related with the flash player. I'm not sure if related directly with flash plug in. Maybe something has influence on the plugin.

[freemant]

In Hardy, I also get the "cannot find alternative" error. To fix that, I used:
update-alternatives --config xinput-all_ALL

and chose "skim" (I used KDE).