HowTo: Japanese Input with UIM

[k0rv3n]

Hi.

I noticed a lot of pepole, including myself just a while ago, have trouble getting Japaneses input to work on ubuntu so I thought I would setup this howto on how I got mine to work.

I have Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) and I used this howto as guideline https://help.ubuntu.com/community/JapaneseInput

First we need to install some packages:

sudo apt-get install uim-applet-gnome uim-xim uim-anthy uim-gtk2.0 im-switch

You need to have the UniversePackages repository configured.

Now the other howto tells you to do the following command, which only gives an error:

im-switch -s uim_anthy

Like everyone else I got this error:

Error: no configuration file "uim_anthy" exists.
Error: No action taken.

Instead type:

uim-pref-gtk

This will bring up the graphical interface for uim.
Here I did the following changes:

1) In the global section I changed the "Input meta toggle key" to "<Shift>space", this I my liking and to follow the other guide

2) Change "Alternative input method" to Anthy.

3) Now in the Anthy section I changed "Default input mode" to Hiragana.

Now you should be able to change between writing with you standard letters and to typing hiragna! やった！　

To get a useful toolbar type:

uim-toolbar-gtk

or, if you want it in the systray:

uim-toolbar-gtk-systray

The latter one I got at startup cause it changes as I change to typing style.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

[Stambo00]

Thank you, this worked great!

[zetsumei]

thank you, it worked i love typing in japanese...

[Wnutt]

ありがとございましと！
That was perfect. Thanks a lot. It will help a lot for my japanese courses.

[k0rv3n]

Glad to hear its working for you guys!!!

[lanig]

It didn't work for me and for good reason I think :
There is a bug (missing file) in the uim_anthy package.

This file has the following content

XIM=uim
XIM_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/uim-xim
XIM_ARGS=
GTK_IM_MODULE=uim
ENGINE=anthy

if [ -r "$HOME/.uim" ]; then
  TMPFILE=$(mktemp) || exit 1
  if [ "$(grep "; IM-SWITCH VALUE" $HOME/.uim)" ]; then
    sed "s/(define default-im-name '[^)]*) ; IM-SWITCH VALUE/(define default-im-name '$ENGI
NE) ; IM-SWITCH VALUE/" < $HOME/.uim > $TMPFILE
  else
    cat $HOME/.uim > $TMPFILE
    if [ "$(grep -E "^\(define[[:space:]]+default-im-name[[:space:]]" $HOME/.uim)" ]; then
      echo "; (define default-im-name '$ENGINE) ; IM-SWITCH VALUE" >> $TMPFILE
    else
      echo "(define default-im-name '$ENGINE) ; IM-SWITCH VALUE" >> $TMPFILE
    fi
  fi
  mv $TMPFILE $HOME/.uim
else
  echo "(define default-im-name '$ENGINE) ; IM-SWITCH VALUE" > $HOME/.uim
fi

Create the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/uim_anthy, put the above content inside, set the perms to world readable, and it is OK.
Alternatively, I tried also this tip and it worked mostly well but I had minor annoyances with french only special characters in QT based apps.

[seetho]

I finally got japanese input working by following the solutions in this thread - thank you all. ありがと。

However it was not all that easy. Following kOrv3n's step above allowed me to input japanese on the command line terminal but not anywhere else. So I decided to try lanig's steps in adding in the missing file. This worked out well and I got input for ooffice and gedit but not terminal, thunderbird or firefox. After a restart everything works!

I still have an irritating problem of having to type "+<space> to get the double quote character and '+<space> to get the quote. Still looking for a solution for this. Otherwise everything works fine.

[OsakaWilson]

Originally Posted by lanig Create the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/uim_anthy, put the above content inside, set the perms to world readable, and it is OK. Alternatively, I tried also this tip and it worked mostly well but I had minor annoyances with french only special characters in QT based apps.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you "create a file"? Also, what are "perms" and how do I set them to "world readable".

[OsakaWilson]

I tried putting it into a text file and saving it under the name and pathway listed, but it told me that I don't have permission to save there.

[k0rv3n]

Originally Posted by OsakaWilson I tried putting it into a text file and saving it under the name and pathway listed, but it told me that I don't have permission to save there.

I'm not sure what that file does since it work for without it but I guess you need to use "sudo" to be able to write the file.