22

I am trying to install another language support (in addition to the default US). Checking that language checkbox in "Install / Remove Languages..." wasn't too difficult. :)

But now I want to add keyboard support, too, for that language. Again, I am prompted with a nice listbox with the following 4 options:

  1. none
  2. ibus
  3. lo-gtk
  4. th-gtk

But I have no idea what these mean. I googled "ubuntu 10.04 keyboard input method system none ibus lo-gtk th-gtk" but all I could find was descriptions of problems, not an actual definition.

Could you please point me to a webpage where I can learn about the meanings of these 4 different methods and +'s and -'s of each?

Jorge Castro
  • 73,717
Android Eve
  • 1,200

2 Answers2

11

IBus has support for the typical languages requiring an IME such as Japanese, Chinese (various) and Korean. See list below.

It has replaced SCIM as the IME frontend of choice for Ubuntu, since it's more actively developed. If you're not happy with IBus, SCIM is a mature alternative.

List of packages starting with ibus:

ibus-anthy                  ibus-table-cangjie3         ibus-table-rustrad
ibus-array                  ibus-table-cangjie5         ibus-table-scj6
ibus-chewing                ibus-table-cangjie-big      ibus-table-stroke5
ibus-clutter                ibus-table-cantonese        ibus-table-thai
ibus-el                     ibus-table-cantonhk         ibus-table-translit
ibus-gtk                    ibus-table-cns11643         ibus-table-translit-ua
ibus-hangul                 ibus-table-compose          ibus-table-viqr
ibus-input-pad              ibus-table-easy             ibus-table-wu
ibus-m17n                   ibus-table-easy-big         ibus-table-wubi
ibus-mozc                   ibus-table-emoji            ibus-table-xinhua
ibus-pinyin                 ibus-table-erbi             ibus-table-yawerty
ibus-pinyin-db-android      ibus-table-extraphrase      ibus-table-yong
ibus-pinyin-db-open-phrase  ibus-table-ipa-x-sampa      ibus-table-zhuyin
ibus-qt4                    ibus-table-jyutping         ibus-table-ziranma
ibus-skk                    ibus-table-latex            ibus-tegaki
ibus-sunpinyin              ibus-table-quick            ibus-unikey
ibus-table                  ibus-table-quick3           ibus-xkbc
ibus-table-array30          ibus-table-quick5           
ibus-table-cangjie          ibus-table-quick-classic

As for lo-gtk and th-gtk, I think they are for Lao and Thai respectively. See below:

$ locate lo-gtk
/etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/lo-gtk

$ head -n3 /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/lo-gtk
#
# This configuration provides default IM setting for Lao with stock GTK+
# Thai-Lao input method.

$ head -n3 /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/th-gtk
#
# This configuration provides default IM setting for Thai with stock GTK+
# Thai-Lao input method.
johv
  • 211
4

You stumbled across a so called “Input Method Editor“ (IME). The name of that IME is „ibus“, the other two (lo-gtk and th-gtk) are either a configuration for „ibus”, less known IMEs themselves or something related.

All languages with less than 100 letters/characters do not require IMEs, practically all users of those languages do not use IMEs and most of those user don’t even know what an IME is or what it does. It sounds like you don’t need them either.

While in those languages one letter is often one keystroke, you can employ some tricks like “Dead keys”, AltGr or simply Shift to reach letters beyond those ~30 letters which can be typed with one key alone.

IMEs have the capability to let GUI elements pop up and hover near your cursor/your current input element. They use those GUI elements for more complex multi-key character/letter typing. Chinese and Japanese are two languages which are almost always typed with the help of IMEs on keyboards.

The GUI elements can provide feedback about the character/letter selection and can guide a confirmation process for complex input. (E.g. a list to choose from).

Robert Siemer
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