Can't input Chinese characters in daily built

A couple of additional comments.

After the most recent upgrade, ibus-libpinyin becomes unusable.

As I reported in the following thread:

https://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486823&start=6

the aforementioned problems were observed when:

(1) I booted from the LiveUSB using the zh_CN kernel parameter, or
(2) I tried to input Chinese characters from English locale (en_US.UTF-8).

When I logged into a Chinese locale, both ibus-sunpinyin and ibus-libpinyin performed normally.

However, English (or any other non-Chinese) locale user should be able to input Chinese characters as Chinese locale users do.

Also need to mention that I didn't experience any problem when I used ibus-pinyin.

But it is a little tricky to use ibus-pinyin, although it seems to work very well.

A look at the daily built manifest shows that ibus-sunpinyin is not included in the iso. (However, as described above, ibus-sunpinyin is anoited as the default Chinese input method.)

It appears that the ibus-sunpinyin package was installed along with many other packaged when the Ubuntu iso was installed.

Please ignore the second paragraph in the previous post, as I typically run a script to install a bunch of additional packages after installation. I suspect ibus-sunpinyin was also installed during this process, but not from the iso.

A restatement of the problem:

Please see:

http://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486960

我查了一下 18.04 daily built 镜像的 manifest （套件库名单），发现 ibus-sunpinyin 这个套件并不在里面：

[code]ibus 1.5.17-3ubuntu1
ibus-chewing 1.5.1-1
ibus-gtk:amd64 1.5.17-3ubuntu1
ibus-gtk3:amd64 1.5.17-3ubuntu1
ibus-hangul 1.5.0+git20161231-1
ibus-libpinyin 1.9.2-2
ibus-m17n 1.3.4-5
ibus-mozc 2.20.2673.102+dfsg-2
ibus-table 1.9.14-3
ibus-table-cangjie 1.8.2-2
ibus-table-cangjie-big 1.8.2-2
ibus-table-cangjie3 1.8.2-2
ibus-table-cangjie5 1.8.2-2
ibus-table-quick-classic 1.8.2-2
ibus-table-wubi 1.8.2-2
ibus-unikey 0.6.1-1.1
[/code]

[attachment=0]bionic-desktop-amd64.manifest.txt[/attachment]

因为 Bionic 把 ibus-sunpinyin 当为预设的中文输入法，因此可以确认，用目前官方版的镜像开机，因为没有 ibus-sunpinyin 这个套件，不管是中文或非中文环境，都无法输入中文。装到硬盘/SSD/U棒后，如果没有再 apt install 需要的套件，也无法输入中文。

目前最笨的解决办法：

这个 manifest 显示，ibus-libpinyin 倒是有包括在镜像里面，因此把预设中文输入法改为 ibus-libpinyin (即 intelligent pinyin）就好了。 不过我们不可能期待一般使用者会知道这么做。

再次感谢 hangying 坛友发现这个问题：

https://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486823

I can confirm that the desktop incorrectly tries to enable sunpinyin if you "Try Ubuntu" by starting a Chinese live session. I haven't been able to figure out why it does that (at least not yet).

@Jeremy: Do you have any idea?

I can also confirm that ibus-libpinyin seems to not work if you "Try Ubuntu" in English from the 2018-03-24 ISO.

@Ping-Wu: Is that latter problem specific to the live session, or is it present also after a real install?

(These appear to be a high priority issues, so I took the liberty to add the rls-bb-incoming tag.)

Adding that tag is fine. Thanks!

Why do you think sunpinyin is attempting to be used?

Does Ubuntu Kylin work? Any other Ubuntu flavors?

Do other default input methods for other languages work as expected in the live environment?

We do have a problem where gnome-settings-daemon (or equivalent) services are not being reliably started when booting a live environment (LP: #1750846). That might not be related here.

I didn't see any mention of pinyin in the places I checked.

The problem persisted after installation. This is indeed expected. When
installing under the (simplified) Chinese locale, ibus-sunpinyin was again
used as the default Chinese input method, but as I mentioned, the
ibus-sunpinyin package is not included in the iso.

After I replaced ibus-sunpinyin with ibus-libpinyin (without doing anything
else) as the Chinese input method in the installed system, the problem went
away. But if we require every Chinese-locale user to install Ubuntu in
order to use it, this would defeat the meaning of a liveCD/USB.

Under the English locale, since I had to manually add a Chinese input
method, which I always chose "intelligent pinyin" (aka libpinyin), this
problem was never discovered.

I also booted the daily built iso in persistent mode. Again, after a
simple swap step, the problem went away. But again, this is not what we
want. We want an ordinary Chinese user to be able to input Chinese
characters without having to do any additional work.

I have not tested other flavors, but a careful perusal of the associated
manifest files reveals:

lubuntu uses fcitx instead of ibus as the input engine, but no Chinese
input module is included;

xubuntu does not include ibus or fcitx, not expected for Chinese users
without installation;

ubuntu-mate uses fcitx, but no Chinese input module is included;

ubuntu-kylin uses fcitx and includes fcitx-pinyin and fcitx-table-wubi; but
both ibus-pinyin and fcitx-pinyin are totally deprecated. "Theoretically"
a ubuntu-kylin liveUSB user could input Chinese characters, but it would
leave the user a very bad taste.

In summary, until this problem is solved, none of the Ubuntu flavors will
allow a Chinese user to input Chinese. And the same conclusion applies to
UbuntuKylin.

Again, as I mentioned previously, we have tested ibus-libpinyin for about
two months now; it is stable and snappy. This problem should be easily
solvable and will help Ubuntu greatly at least with regard to those who
have a need to input Chinese characters. (UbuntuKylin has so many other
problems; I have totally given up on it. Also, UbuntyKylin is pushing the
proprietary sogou (搜狗) pinyin method; this method has its own problems,
which sometimes could take a while to be solved--if at all.)

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 11:49 AM, Jeremy Bicha <email address hidden> wrote:

> Adding that tag is fine. Thanks!
>
> Why do you think sunpinyin is attempting to be used?
>
> Does Ubuntu Kylin work? Any other Ubuntu flavors?
>
> Do other default input methods for other languages work as expected in
> the live environment?
>
> We do have a problem where gnome-settings-daemon (or equivalent)
> services are not being reliably started when booting a live environment
> (LP: #1750846). That might not be related here.
>
> I didn't see any mention of pinyin in the places I checked.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1756205
>
> Title:
> Can't input Chinese characters in daily built
>
> Status in ibus-libpinyin package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> OS: Ubuntu 18.04 Daily Built 2018-03-08.
>
> As reported in the Ubun...

On 2018-03-24 22:49, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> Why do you think sunpinyin is attempting to be used?

I have no idea. The problem is an incorrect dconf setting:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources
[('xkb', 'us'), ('ibus', 'sunpinyin')]

(i.e. in a live zh_CN session)

> Does Ubuntu Kylin work? Any other Ubuntu flavors?

Kylin uses Fcitx. Don't know about other flavors, but I have a feeling that they usually don't care much about Chinese typing in their live sessions. This switch from ibus-sunpinyin to ibus-libpinyin is a pure standard Ubuntu thing AFAIK.

> Do other default input methods for other languages work as expected
> in the live environment?

Good question. :) I accidentally tried Japanese, and then it correctly set ibus-mozc.

> I didn't see any mention of pinyin in the places I checked.

Neither did I. Still, "sunpinyin" is reasonably hard coded somewhere.

On 2018-03-25 01:22, Ping-Wu wrote:
> ubuntu-kylin uses fcitx and includes fcitx-pinyin and fcitx-table-wubi;
> but both ibus-pinyin and fcitx-pinyin are totally deprecated.
> "Theoretically" a ubuntu-kylin liveUSB user could input Chinese
> characters, but it would leave the user a very bad taste.

Kylin has fcitx-googlepinyin also.

Found it.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon - 3.28.0-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-settings-daemon (3.28.0-0ubuntu2) bionic; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/ubuntu_ibus_configs.patch:
    - libpinyin instead of sunpinyin for zh_CN (LP: #1756205)

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Sun, 25 Mar 2018 05:16:00 +0100

Thanks a whole lot Gunnar! Look forward to test it.

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 8:27 PM, Launchpad Bug Tracker <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon -
> 3.28.0-0ubuntu2
>
> ---------------
> gnome-settings-daemon (3.28.0-0ubuntu2) bionic; urgency=medium
>
> * debian/patches/ubuntu_ibus_configs.patch:
> - libpinyin instead of sunpinyin for zh_CN (LP: #1756205)
>
> -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Sun, 25 Mar 2018 05:16:00
> +0100
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
> Status: In Progress => Fix Released
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1756205
>
> Title:
> Can't input Chinese characters in daily built
>
> Status in gnome-settings-daemon package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> OS: Ubuntu 18.04 Daily Built 2018-03-08.
>
> As reported in the Ubuntu Chinese forum (in Chinese):
>
> http://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486823
>
> users cannot input Chinese characters.
>
> It appears the daily built uses sunpinyin as the default Chinese input
> method. But sunpinyin is not included in the iso.
>
> Sunpinyin has not been maintained for at least a couple of years;
> several problems have been reported associated therewith but remain
> unsolved, and it doesn't appear that the problems will be solved any
> time soon.
>
> Ibus-libpinyin has been working very smoothly inside Bionic. Its
> frequency table regarding single words can be improved, but it works
> very well for phrases.
>
> I suggest we change the default Chinese input method from sunpinyin to
> libpinyin (i.e., intelligent pinyin).
>
> This is an urgent matter.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-
> daemon/+bug/1756205/+subscriptions
>

BTW, do you have any idea when this fix will go into the daily built?
Really look forward to testing it!

Also, when I click on the "manage installed language" dialog bar, I would
be prompted to install "kde-config-fcitx". This is unnecessary and clearly
is a bug and should be removed.

Thanks again!

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 8:27 PM, Launchpad Bug Tracker <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon -
> 3.28.0-0ubuntu2
>
> ---------------
> gnome-settings-daemon (3.28.0-0ubuntu2) bionic; urgency=medium
>
> * debian/patches/ubuntu_ibus_configs.patch:
> - libpinyin instead of sunpinyin for zh_CN (LP: #1756205)
>
> -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Sun, 25 Mar 2018 05:16:00
> +0100
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
> Status: In Progress => Fix Released
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1756205
>
> Title:
> Can't input Chinese characters in daily built
>
> Status in gnome-settings-daemon package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> OS: Ubuntu 18.04 Daily Built 2018-03-08.
>
> As reported in the Ubuntu Chinese forum (in Chinese):
>
> http://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486823
>
> users cannot input Chinese characters.
>
> It appears the daily built uses sunpinyin as the default Chinese input
> method. But sunpinyin is not included in the iso.
>
> Sunpinyin has not been maintained for at least a couple of years;
> several problems have been reported associated therewith but remain
> unsolved, and it doesn't appear that the problems will be solved any
> time soon.
>
> Ibus-libpinyin has been working very smoothly inside Bionic. Its
> frequency table regarding single words can be improved, but it works
> very well for phrases.
>
> I suggest we change the default Chinese input method from sunpinyin to
> libpinyin (i.e., intelligent pinyin).
>
> This is an urgent matter.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-
> daemon/+bug/1756205/+subscriptions
>

On 2018-03-25 10:39, Ping-Wu wrote:
> BTW, do you have any idea when this fix will go into the daily
> built? Really look forward to testing it!

In a couple of days, I'd guess.

> Also, when I click on the "manage installed language" dialog bar, I
> would be prompted to install "kde-config-fcitx". This is unnecessary
> and clearly is a bug and should be removed.

That package is needed for Kubuntu, and is installed only if the kio package was installed previously, which it is not on standard Ubuntu AFAIK. Not a bug.

I downloaded 20183026 daily built and am very pleased to report that the
Chinese input problem seems to have been solved!!! Thanks so much Gunnar!

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 11:02 PM, Gunnar Hjalmarsson <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> On 2018-03-25 10:39, Ping-Wu wrote:
> > BTW, do you have any idea when this fix will go into the daily
> > built? Really look forward to testing it!
>
> In a couple of days, I'd guess.
>
> > Also, when I click on the "manage installed language" dialog bar, I
> > would be prompted to install "kde-config-fcitx". This is unnecessary
> > and clearly is a bug and should be removed.
>
> That package is needed for Kubuntu, and is installed only if the kio
> package was installed previously, which it is not on standard Ubuntu
> AFAIK. Not a bug.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1756205
>
> Title:
> Can't input Chinese characters in daily built
>
> Status in gnome-settings-daemon package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> OS: Ubuntu 18.04 Daily Built 2018-03-08.
>
> As reported in the Ubuntu Chinese forum (in Chinese):
>
> http://forum.ubuntu.com.cn/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=486823
>
> users cannot input Chinese characters.
>
> It appears the daily built uses sunpinyin as the default Chinese input
> method. But sunpinyin is not included in the iso.
>
> Sunpinyin has not been maintained for at least a couple of years;
> several problems have been reported associated therewith but remain
> unsolved, and it doesn't appear that the problems will be solved any
> time soon.
>
> Ibus-libpinyin has been working very smoothly inside Bionic. Its
> frequency table regarding single words can be improved, but it works
> very well for phrases.
>
> I suggest we change the default Chinese input method from sunpinyin to
> libpinyin (i.e., intelligent pinyin).
>
> This is an urgent matter.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-
> daemon/+bug/1756205/+subscriptions
>

Glad to hear that. Thanks for confirming!