Tested 2013-09-11 on Lubuntu 13.04.

IBus ∞

Whatever this is..

\sudo  \apt-get  install \
  ibus-pinyin \
  ` # `

\sudo  /usr/bin/python3.3  /usr/bin/gnome-language-selector

If it prompts you about missing full language support, then let it do whatever it does to get it working.

• Click the “Install/Remove Languages” button.
• Find “Chinese (simplified)” and click the checkbox for the “Installed” column.
• Click “Apply changes”

• In the “Language” tab, for the dropdown box next to “Keyboard input method system”, select “IBus”. Log out and log back in again.

\ibus-setup

• Input Method >

  • [x] Customize active input methods
  • From the dropdown box, select Pinyin, and click Add

Usage:

• Open up any GUI text editor, like Leafpad.
• Press control-space to enable it (the default hotkey)
• type nihao

• Press control-space to disable it

Issues ∞

• There’s no tray icon
• The numbers aren’t associated with the pinyin code. So 1 isn’t always ¯ (e.g. ā) and 3 isn’t always ˇ (e.g. ǎ), so there’s no way to type quickly.
• I can’t figure out how to get ba1 (bā, 八) to appear.

• I can’t figure out how to get shi2 (shí， 十) to appear.

Other notes ∞

SCIM ∞

I fiddled with this, and I don’t think it’s working properly for me.

I don’t know what it is or what it’s for, but I don’t get Chinese or any other language in its configuration..

\sudo  \apt-get  install \
  scim \
  scim-m17n \
  ` # `

Then run it with \scim

Unhelpful references ∞

• https://eastasiastudent.net/study/input-cjk-ubuntu/
• https://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/input-pinyin-tone-marks-ubuntu/

• http://www.pinyinjoe.com/linux/ubuntu-12-chinese-setup.htm