Japanese keyboard

Support
1

Hello Manjaro Forums. Please don’t get angry…

I have a laptop with an english/hiragana keyboard, and this topic explains how to make it type hiragana, but I’m stuck at the very beginning. Where do I set the keyboard input source? In the Keyboard settings section, there are Behaviour, App Shortcuts and Layout. Under Layout, there is keyboard model, which I have set to Japanese 106-key, and keyboard layout, which i have set to Japanese OADG 109A (not being certain if it’s correct).

Also, after having fcitx5 installed, I am no longer able to switch the layout to english with Ctrl+Shift, it’s stuck in JA, but I still can’t type hiragana. It’s either english or weird underlined and spaced english, after pressing the 半角/全角 key. The Katakana/Hiragana key to the right of the Space doesn’t seem to do anything.

I 100% admit the problem is me :laughing: but I’m stuck, could anyone help please?

upd: Oh sorry, it’s Manjaro Xfce and a Panasonic CF-SV

2

I only use English, so I’ve never configured Japanese or used fcitx5. Hope this helps. :man_shrugging:

Have you installed the rest of the fcitx5-im group?

sudo pacman -S fcitx-im

If so then you should have some options somewhere (fcitx5 needs to be running). Not sure where it would be in XFCE.

In KDE Plasma it’s: System Settings → Language & Time → Input Method.

I’m not sure if it matches that thread though (the image looks like Gnome and the terminology may differ).

That thread says to use Japanese, but I wouldn’t know. Perhaps try each one.

fcitx5 presumably has it’s own combo. Find the settings mentioned above.

Have you read this link?

3

Thank you for response! I’ve tried to. It’s like a fractal structure, every manual mentions ten other manuals…

To enable Fcitx5, configure at least the following environment variables:

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

I’m not even close to understanding what it means. Really, I’m trying my best, but it’s just complicated. Also,

yes! yes I have with all six components mentioned in the topic. So I now have the fcitx config panel and the fcitx seems to be working normally since it has the icon on the panel and the hankaku key does switch the layout, but - no hiragana! just latin letters f_o_r_m_a_t_t_e_d___t_h_i_s___w_a_y.

Should I probably try installing another environment different from Xfce?

4

You can add those to your ~/.profile, like so… :backhand_index_pointing_down:

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

Note: You’ll need to log out and back in after saving the changes.

5

:goblin:
:joy:
I’m just wondering whether the package manjaro-asian-input-support-fcitx5 could be of any help? It contains /etc/xdg/fcitx5/profile and /etc/profile.d/input-support.sh.

6

Based on the thread you linked.

Set the environments variables like @Aragorn said or install manjaro-asian-input-support-fcitx5 as @jofi said.

The latter also sets up some layouts and includes some extra environment variables.

export INPUT_METHOD=fcitx
export SDL_IM_MODULE=fcitx

After that logout and back in again. If it’s still not working, then :down_arrow:

If “Japanese” isn’t the correct layout, then try each one in turn until you find the correct one.

7

Japanese keyboards have different ways to type.
a) typing the hiragana you see printed on the key.
b) typing in english to make hiragana. eg: ka ki ku ke ko = かきくけこ

I only use this b style because im used to the qwerty layout. Im sure you can set up a, but ive never tried.

Using mozc “JA” means typing 100% English on a Japanese keyboard.
Switch to “mozc” to type in japanese mode.
You can change this in the tray icon, or using keys you set in mozc settings.
CTRL+ SPACE is usually the default.

in Mozc settings you should have [Group 1] (& only that one group, remove any other group)
Then below ~

  • Keyboard - Japanese (JA)
  • Mozc

If you also add “Japanese Keyboard (kana)” you can use method (a) mentioned above.

In mozc mode, as you type, it will show underlined until you confirm the word with ‘enter’ - the english/kana will change when you type the correct kana.
So if you type “sky” its not going to work since thats not forming japanese sounds, sukayu would work.
But, if you type “ten” you will get てん or 天 which is the same in hiragana or kanji.
If you type “ten” in hiragana mode, you need to type the n twice because its expecting na ni nu etc, so in this case we just want n. So effectively you type “tenn”. Then if you hit space it will switch to the most common kanji 天 & press enter to complete.

(or you can press arrow down to scroll multiple word options in which ten is relevant. This is useful if you need to locate a less common kanji)

on my kb the 無 key to the left of space will switch what you type between hiragana & katakana. So you can type てん & switch to テン

Hope this helps.
I feel I could have explained this better :pensive_face:, hope you can make the best of it.

8

Dear Riquez, you’re the awesomest, I added the Kana keyboard and ミテクタ゛サイ! スコ゛イテ゛スヨネ but only Katakana and I don’t know why it puts spaces after the dakutens. But I’ll figure it out eventually!

upd: it appears that there are no spaces after the dakutens but the dakutens themselves are a whole symbol wide for some reason. That’s another wonderful challenge :face_with_hand_over_mouth: