Comment 8 for bug 1756205

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 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/ibus-libpinyin/
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>