Bug#988540: im-config: breaks the keyboard configuration
Control: tags -1 wontfix
Control: severity -1 wishlist
Control: retitle -1 im-config: breaks the keyboard input using XKB input (ZOOM user)
Control: summary -1 0
thanks
Classic X environment supports to enter non-ASCII (latin) characters via XKB input
and some people still want to use this via this old setting method.
Bug was filed by an annoyed user who lost access to functionalities offered by his
old fashioned XKB input setting. This happened because ZOOM (this package is
external to Debian) provides its DEB package with its "Depends" listing ibus.
It is reasonable for ZOOM to support Chinese and Japanese input and list ibus as
dependency. (XKB can't support Chinese nor Japanese input)
ibus merely recommends im-config for easy set-up but this fact pulls in im-config as
its default behavior.
im-config is a glue layer code to support keyboard input with focus to use modern
mothods (such as ibus). im-config's default behavior is to use ibus (reasonable
default choice).
ibus can (I think) offer XKB equivalent input functionality if configured correctly.
I don't use such feature so I can't explain with confidence. Here are some
references which might help.
*
https://superuser.com/questions/1637594/how-to-pass-xkb-options-to-ibus-and-use-them-with-m17n-engines
(2021)
* https://vas.neocities.org/custom_keyboard_layout_xkb_ibus.html (2020)
* https://askubuntu.com/questions/1139936/ubuntu-mate-disable-xkb-and-use-ibus (2019)
* https://askubuntu.com/questions/1077683/ibus-xkb-engine-layouts-dont-work (2018)
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/IBus#Troubleshooting
(If I recall correctly, ibus-xkb code has been merged into ibus. ibus should offer
this XKB input functionality by now.)
Also for im-config, im-config can be configured not to use ibus by running this
command:
im-config -n none
and reboot.
For both ibus and im-config, the desirable user experience can be provided by proper
user configuration.
So there is no bug on im-config's parts. (Besides, you can remove im-config too
since it is only recommended.)
I consider this bug report as wishlist bug for the default of im-config.
With the above assessment, I mark this as wontfix and leave this here to help ZOOM
user :-)
(Please note GNOME forces to use ibus even when you disable or remove im-config.)
Regards,
Osamu
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