ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

I’m still struggling with ibus + ibus-libpinyin on Gnome.
ibus-libpinyin works in the gnome-shell input field, but the input
method doesn’t work in any of the applications such as icecat, console,
or soffice.

The GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable is set to “ibus”.  I export it in
the shell and launch “soffice” or “icecat” from there.

ibus and ibus-libpinyin are installed in the system profile as well as
the user profile.  I previously had installed them only in the user
profile, but then added them to the system profile because I want to be
sure that any required environment variables are set in all contexts,
even when launching applications from the Gnome shell.

Do you have any ideas how to best debug this?  I could strace the
applications and see if any of them mention a failure to talk to ibus,
but I’d like to avoid having to sift through all that noisy trace output
for massive GTK applications.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Luis Felipe]

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Hi Ricardo,

El 18/07/23 a las 21:14, Ricardo Wurmus escribió:
> Hi Guix,
>
> I’m still struggling with ibus + ibus-libpinyin on Gnome.
> ibus-libpinyin works in the gnome-shell input field, but the input
> method doesn’t work in any of the applications such as icecat, console,
> or soffice.

Surprisingly, it works for me (I haven't been able to type Japanese for 
months). I tried in icecat and console.

> The GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable is set to “ibus”.  I export it in
> the shell and launch “soffice” or “icecat” from there.

Hmm, I don't have GTK_IM_MODULE set in my ~/.profile (don't remember why 
I removed it...). I have these:

# GUIX RELATED VARIABLES TO WORK AROUND BUG #35610
# https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/35610
# export 
GUIX_GTK2_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules-gtk2.cache"
export 
GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/immodules-gtk3.cache"
# These are needed only to work on Qt apps like TeXmacs.
export XMODIFIERS="@im=ibus"  # Set X input method server (xim) to ibus.
export QT_IM_MODULE="ibus"    # Set Qt input method module to ibus.

> ibus and ibus-libpinyin are installed in the system profile as well as
> the user profile.  I previously had installed them only in the user
> profile, but then added them to the system profile because I want to be
> sure that any required environment variables are set in all contexts,
> even when launching applications from the Gnome shell.

I install ibus engines in my profile. I tried installing them in the 
system profile, and that never worked for me. But I haven't tried recently.

> Do you have any ideas how to best debug this?  I could strace the
> applications and see if any of them mention a failure to talk to ibus,
> but I’d like to avoid having to sift through all that noisy trace output
> for massive GTK applications.

For what it's worth, I was suggested to run the engine directly when I 
was having trouble with ibus-stt 
(https://github.com/PhilippeRo/IBus-Speech-To-Text/discussions/7). So maybe

/gnu/store/1s0p8fk1bgp0v2gv5dgjgpq1v4p3nwji-ibus-libpinyin-1.15.2/libexec/ibus-engine-libpinyin 
--gapplication-replace -g

That helped me fix some ibus-stt errors. (And actually, I see an error 
when running the ibus-anthy engine, which might be why I can't even find 
the engine listed in input options).

Good luck,

-- 
Luis Felipe López Acevedo
https://luis-felipe.gitlab.io/


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Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi,

Luis Felipe <sirgazil@zoho.com> writes:

>> The GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable is set to “ibus”.  I export it in
>> the shell and launch “soffice” or “icecat” from there.
>
> Hmm, I don't have GTK_IM_MODULE set in my ~/.profile (don't remember
> why I removed it...). I have these:
>
> # GUIX RELATED VARIABLES TO WORK AROUND BUG #35610
> # https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/35610
> # export
>   GUIX_GTK2_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules-gtk2.cache"
> export
> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/immodules-gtk3.cache"

Oh… I remember these from commit 234e7980b54ef37e9a24440ec7219c81d6288a71.
After setting GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE everything is good.

Thank you so much for reminding me about these variables!

I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
themselves.

Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
session)?

-- 
Ricardo

Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Luis Felipe]

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El 19/07/23 a las 21:45, Ricardo Wurmus escribió:
> Hi,
>
> Luis Felipe <sirgazil@zoho.com> writes:
>
>>> The GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable is set to “ibus”.  I export it in
>>> the shell and launch “soffice” or “icecat” from there.
>> Hmm, I don't have GTK_IM_MODULE set in my ~/.profile (don't remember
>> why I removed it...). I have these:
>>
>> # GUIX RELATED VARIABLES TO WORK AROUND BUG #35610
>> # https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/35610
>> # export
>>    GUIX_GTK2_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules-gtk2.cache"
>> export
>> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/immodules-gtk3.cache"
> Oh… I remember these from commit 234e7980b54ef37e9a24440ec7219c81d6288a71.
> After setting GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE everything is good.
>
> Thank you so much for reminding me about these variables!
>
> I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
> of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
> probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
> themselves.
>
> Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
> these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
> session)?

That would be nice. At least for me, as a desktop user, I don't wanna 
know anything about environment variables :)



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Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Luis Felipe <sirgazil@zoho.com> writes:
>
>>> The GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable is set to “ibus”.  I export it in
>>> the shell and launch “soffice” or “icecat” from there.
>>
>> Hmm, I don't have GTK_IM_MODULE set in my ~/.profile (don't remember
>> why I removed it...). I have these:
>>
>> # GUIX RELATED VARIABLES TO WORK AROUND BUG #35610
>> # https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/35610
>> # export
>>   GUIX_GTK2_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules-gtk2.cache"
>> export
>> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/immodules-gtk3.cache"
>
> Oh… I remember these from commit 234e7980b54ef37e9a24440ec7219c81d6288a71.
> After setting GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE everything is good.
>
> Thank you so much for reminding me about these variables!
>
> I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
> of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
> probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
> themselves.
>
> Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
> these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
> session)?

Perhaps this should rather be the role of a search path specification?
That'd be ideal.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:

>> I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
>> of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
>> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
>> probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
>> themselves.
>>
>> Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
>> these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
>> session)?
>
> Perhaps this should rather be the role of a search path specification?
> That'd be ideal.

The GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable is attached to gtk+, but a search
path specification would require explicit installation of the gtk+
package.  In other words, it would not really help here as gtk+ is
rarely ever explicitly installed.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi Ricardo,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:
>
>>> I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
>>> of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
>>> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
>>> probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
>>> themselves.
>>>
>>> Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
>>> these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
>>> session)?
>>
>> Perhaps this should rather be the role of a search path specification?
>> That'd be ideal.
>
> The GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable is attached to gtk+, but a search
> path specification would require explicit installation of the gtk+
> package.  In other words, it would not really help here as gtk+ is
> rarely ever explicitly installed.

Perhaps ibus could propagate it in the meantime #22138 is resolved (with
a comment in the code) ?

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

Re: ibus + ibus-libpinyin in Gnome

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi again,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:
>
>>> I wonder if we can do better here to provide a working configuration out
>>> of the box.  If even the author of the patch to add support for the
>>> GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable cannot remember setting it then we
>>> probably cannot expect users of input methods to figure this out by
>>> themselves.
>>>
>>> Perhaps some desktop service or home service should exist that sets
>>> these variables for the user (either in /etc/environment or per
>>> session)?
>>
>> Perhaps this should rather be the role of a search path specification?
>> That'd be ideal.
>
> The GUIX_GTK3_IM_MODULE_FILE variable is attached to gtk+, but a search
> path specification would require explicit installation of the gtk+
> package.  In other words, it would not really help here as gtk+ is
> rarely ever explicitly installed.

Or maybe it could simply be wrapped in a phase?

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim