How to configure Linux Mint to type chinese characters

Created on 23-sep-2013 - Updated on 16-aoû-2015 - 46072 views

For Linux Mint 14 (Nadia)

Menu / Control Center / Language Support
Install / Remove Languages...
check Chinese (simplified and / or traditional) and click on Apply Changes. Required data download and installation is started.
using package manager, install ibus package (this will install several dependancies: ibus, ibus-gtk, etc.)
restart Language Support, and select ibus for keyboard input method system.
in Control Center, a new icon named Keyboard Input Methods appeared. Click on it. You will be asked whether you want IBus Daemon to be started. Accept.
in IBus Preferences window, General tab, configure keyboard shortcuts (my own preference is Control+Alt_L for Enable or disable and Shift+Meta_L for Next input method).
in Input Method tab, add Chinese py (m17n) method.
in Control Center, right-clicking on Keyboard Input Methods, request to add it to startup programs.
restart your session.

Enable the input method (Control+Alt_L for me). You should now be able to type chinese characters.

To be able to type pinyin with accents, add the input method Chinese hanyu pinyin (m17n). To write a tone, simply type its number.

You can now type characters like these ones: 你好 nǐhǎo.

Menu / Control Center / Language Support
Install / Remove Languages...
check Chinese (simplified and / or traditional) and click on Apply Changes. Required data download and installation is started.
using package manager, install ibus, ibus-m17n and ibus-pinyin package (this will install several dependancies)
restart Language Support, and select ibus for keyboard input method system.
in Control Center, a new icon named Keyboard Input Methods appeared. Click on it. You will be asked whether you want IBus Daemon to be started. Accept.
in IBus Preferences window, General tab, I was not able to configure my usual keyboard shortcuts .
in Input Method tab, add Chinese - pinyin and Chinese - hanyu pinyin (m17n) methods. Add input method for your language as well.
restart your session.

In above method, replace ibus-pinyin by ibus-libpinyin.

Menu / Control Center / Languages
click on Install / Remove Languages... (will ask for your password)
click on Add...
select Chinese, China UTF-8 and click on Install
going back to Language Settings window, click on Add support for IBus (will ask your password)
once done, click on Install optional components (will ask your password)
after components installation, select IBus for the input method
going back to Control Center, click on Keyboard Input Methods. A dialog asks you whether you want to start IBus Daemon. Accept.
IBus Preferences window opens. Add an input method for any language you want to be able to use, in addition to Chinese. For me : French (I use an AZERTY keyboard). For Chinese, add pinyin and hanyu pinyin (m17n).
for pinyin method, uncheck Incomplete pinyin in Pinyin mode tab.
in IBus Preferences / Advanced, check Use system keyboard layout, otherwise my AZERTY keyboard is recognized as a QWERTY keyboard by the hanyu pinyin method.
close your session and reopen it.

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