GNOME IBus Integration
Summary
Gnome 3.6 will provide support for input methods using IBus, in addition keyboard layout configuration.
The integration includes a gnome-shell input indicator combining keyboard layouts and input methods selection.
For this to be a smooth transition for Fedora users, various changes and testing are needed, and this is covered by this feature.
Owner
- Name: Takao Fujiwara, Rui Matos
- Email: tfujiwar@redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 18
- Last updated: 2012-07-17
- Percentage of completion: 40%
The bulk of the integration patches have been merged upstream for GNOME 3.5.4, and will appear in rawhide sometime this week. See http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/IBus for more detailed status.
Detailed Description
The ibus UI for gnome-shell has been provided as ibus-gnome3 package since Fedora 16 and now is the time to integrate the ibus UI into gnome-shell.
Benefit to Fedora
Currently ibus-gnome3 package is not enabled by default and users need to enable the ibus indicator by manual in Fedora 17.
When the ibus integration is done in gnome-shell, ibus input methods will be available in the control-center region panel and in the gnome-shell keyboard menu without any manual steps (other than making sure that ibus and suitable ibus engines are installed).
Scope
gnome-shell provides the ibus menu by default. ibus does not run ibus panel on gnome-shell. gnome-control-center provides ibus configuration. gnome-settings-daemon launches ibus-daemon and switches engines.
FIXMEs:
- hotkey handling (locale based?)
- default IMEs
How To Test
Install IBus and some engines, eg ibus-anthy.
Open gnome-control-center, region panel, input sources tab. Use the + button and add Anthy to the list of active input sources.
Verify that Anthy is now listed in the gnome-shell keyboard menu and can be activated from there.
Test that using Anthy to enter Japanese text works in gedit, firefox, and in gnome-shell itself, e.g. in the search entry.
Test that switching between keyboard layouts such as en_Us and input methods such as anthy works using both the shell menu and keyboard shortcuts.
Verify that the keyboard shortcuts can be changed in the control-center panel.
User Experience
gnome-shell shows ibus indicator is available by default. gnome-control-center shows ibus configurations by default.
Dependencies
See https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/IBus
- gnome-shell depends on ibus libraries
- gnome-control-center depends on ibus libraries
- ibus-setup won't be accessible from GUI in gnome-shell, but input methods will be configurable from the control-center
Q: so can you clarify in our feature page, what features are approved/agreed to include in 3.6 and what features are proposed but not yet approved/agreed?
A: Currently approved patches are gnome-shell and switching engines by g-s-d. Running ibus-daemon and g-c-c is under the review.
Q: which features of the above contains ibus-setup replacement say?
A: g-c-c.
Q: When gnome-settings-daemon is implemented to run ibus-daemon
- if imsettings disables to run ibus-daemon
- im-chooser can be run by users
- if any UIs provide the option to disable ibus-daemon
- if ibus-daemon runs on any locales
- if ibus-daemon runs without ibus engines
- if imsettings needs to be run to export QT_IM_MODULE and XMODIFIERS
A: As of 3.5.4, gnome-settings-daemon will only activate ibus-daemon when needed - ie when the list of active input sources contains input methods requiring IBus. If you don't want ibus-daemon to run, you can just not add any such input sources to the list. Or you can uninstall ibus-daemon. Users can run im-chooser if they want to, but it will probably interfere with the Input Sources UI in the control-center.
Contingency Plan
ibus panel is back and enables ibus-daemon does not connect to gnome-settings-daemon.
Documentation
ibus-xkb is also integrated for non-GNOME desktop newly. ibus-xkb provides preloaded engines, all XKB layout, variant ibus engines, frequently used input method list on ibus-setup, customizable trigger key on ibus-setup.
Release Notes
- Input methods (based on IBus) have been integrated directly into GNOME3.