Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

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wen12893

Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by wen12893 »

Following is what I did to install/configure Google Pinyin in Linux Mint (English version) using "fcitx" so that I can switch input method to enter either English or Chinese at will in Linux Mint 18.3.

(Step 1): Use software manager to install the following package:

Menu → Administration → Software Manager, enter “fcitx” in search box and find the following from the search result and click to install:

fcitx
fcitx-config-gtk
fcitx-frontend-gtk2
fcitx-frontend-gtk3
fcitx-googlepinyin
fcitx-ui-classic
Close (x) software manager

(Step 2): Change Input Method to “Fcitx”:
Menu ⇒ Preferences ⇒ Input Method ⇒ set Input method to [Fcitx]

(Step 3): Logout and Login

(Step 4): Verify a small keyboard icon appears in the system tray area

(Step 5): Add “Google Pinyin” to Fcitx:
- Right-click keyboard icon in system tray ⇒ Configure, this would bring up "Input Method Configuration" window
- click (+) sign
- click (x) to uncheck "Only Show Current Language" so to list all the available languages
- Select Google Pinyin (I found it at the very bottom of the list)
- click OK
- click [Appearance] Tab ⇒ change ClassicUI Font size from ‘0’ to ‘12’
- click [Addon] Tab ⇒ Input method selector ⇒ Configure ⇒ IMSelector ⇒ Global Input Method SelectKey ⇒ click first [Empty] box ⇒ press Ctrl+Shift+Space on the keyboard ⇒ OK
ps. this Ctrl+Shift+Space is my keyboard shortcut to switch the input language.

(Step 6): Test Chinese input:
- Open Terminal (or a browser)
- Enter (Ctrl+Shift+Space) and value '2' on the keyboard to select Google Pinyin (or use mouse to select)
img001.JPG
- enter ‘z' & 'g’ then you should see a list of Chinese characters to select
img002.JPG
- to switch keyboard back to English, enter Ctrl+Shift+Space, then enter value '1' (or use mouse to select)

Thanks! -wen (文)
MisterAHA
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Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:03 pm

Re: Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by MisterAHA »

HI,
I'm using Linux MInt 19.

It works fine so far, but i had an issue. If i switch (Ctrl+Shift+Space) it only switch to chinese. There isn't any value 1 or 2.
If i want to switch back to english there is no way to do this.
May someone can help me?

Best regards
mshaw

Re: Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by mshaw »

I am running Mint 19.1 and just installed google pinyin following the OP's procedure. Seems it is working fine.
wen12893

Re: Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by wen12893 »

I just tested the above procedure in Mint 19.1 and still works fine. thx -wen
tippecanoe8
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Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 5:15 pm

Re: Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by tippecanoe8 »

So cool and useful!

Thanks!!
jack192

Re: Linux Mint 18.3 with Google Pinyin (Chinese input)

Post by jack192 »

There were no keyboard after step 4 on my case. I have a new installed Mint.
It turns out that the new installation has not install the most new stuffs yet. There is system message icon popped up there where a big slut of package updates required to download and updated, include those "Language packages".

After that, OP's method works.

Thanks a lot.
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