Fcitx5 doesn't type Chinese characters anywhere

Support Software & Applications
1

I used the ArchWiki instructions to install and configure fcitx5, and yet the Chinese keyboard acts exactly like an English keyboard. Here are my steps:

#1: I installed fcitx5

yay -S noto-fonts-sc
sudo pacman -S fcitx5-im
sudo pacman -S fcitx5-chinese-addons
sudo pacman -S fcitx5-qt
sudo pacman -S fcitx5-gtk

#2: I edited /etc/environment using Kate:

GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx

#3: I entered the configuration GUI, where I, using the “select system layout” button, added English, Arabic, and Chinese. The Chinese option had 2 relevant variants:
1- Default
2- Hanyu Pinyin Letters (with AltGr dead keys)
My problem here is that both those options act exactly like an English keyboard instead of converting the Pinyin to Chinese characters (and they don’t give the usual suggestion dropdown either.)

What am I missing?

2

Hi @AnaLaAnsaki,
I use fcitx5 with Japanese & the process is probably similar.
Perhaps this post might be useful to you.
Note: mozc is the Japanese add-on, so you won’t need that, but I believe the other settings should be useful.

3

Hi @Riquez,

Thanks for your reply.
I found the (double) problem.

I was supposed to use the “add input method” button, and also fcitx5-chinese-addons doesn’t seem to show up at all. I ended up using fcitx5-rime and changing it into simplified characters. Not sure why the terminology used in this program is so incomprehensible.

I, however, still have some problems.

First of all, why doesn’t fcitx5 change the language (or to use its own terms, “enumerate input method forward”) unless a text box is selected? And why does every window memorize its own input method (I want it to be more like windows, where the input language is constant everywhere)? And why does it absolutely refuse to change the input method while writing in a terminal?

Thanks in advance.

4

Try to switch to manjaro-asian-input-support-fcitx or fcitx instead of fcitx5

5

arch wiki suggest we use fcitx5 instead of fcitx