IBus

Resources

IBus (Intelligent Input Bus) is an open source input framework for Linux and Unix.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for app-i18n/ibus Intelligent Input Bus for Linux / Unix OS

`+emoji`	Enable support for Emoji
`+gtk3`	Enable the GTK-3 input method module
`+gtk4`	Enable the GTK-4 input method module
`+gui`	Enable support for a graphical user interface
`+introspection`	Add support for GObject based introspection
`+python`	Add optional support/bindings for the Python language
`+unicode`	Enable support for Unicode choice
`X`	Add support for X11
`appindicator`	Build in support for notifications using the libindicate or libappindicator plugin
`gtk2`	Enable the GTK-2 input method module
`libnotify`	Enable desktop notification support
`nls`	Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
`systemd`	Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session tracking
`test`	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
`vala`	Enable bindings for dev-lang/vala
`wayland`	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-10-17 11:39 More information about USE flags

Emerge

As well as the basic IBus framework, one or more engines should be installed. For example:

root #emerge --ask app-i18n/ibus ibus-libpinyin

Have a look at the eix output for more available engines:

user $eix -c -S engine app-i18n/ibus

For graphical toolkit integration, app-i18n/ibus offers gtk2, gtk3 and gtk4 flags.

KDE

For IBus to work with Qt 5 / KDE 5 / Plasma, the ibus USE flag needs to be set on at least dev-qt/qtgui and kde-plasma/plasma-desktop:

FILE /etc/portage/package.use/ibus

dev-qt/qtgui ibus
kde-plasma/plasma-desktop ibus

And those packages rebuilt to reflect that change:

root #emerge --ask --oneshot --newuse dev-qt/qtgui kde-plasma/plasma-desktop

Configuration

The app-i18n/im-chooser package can be helpful for selecting the preferred input method.

If nothing starts (no ibus daemon) when a user logs in, add the following environment variables and log out:

FILE

export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus

# Use `xim` in case some Electron apps (like Chromium) refuse to work with IBus
# export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
# export QT_IM_MODULE=xim

ibus-daemon -drx

The installation can be finely tuned by running:

user $ibus-setup

ibus-setup can be used to set the preferred input methods, the system keyboard, or to add an icon in the taskbar.

Note
When using GNOME, type "ibus" in the search bar and launch "ibus-preferences"

The command-line ibus utility may also be used, in place of ibus-setup:

user $ibus list-engine

user $ibus engine m17n:t:unicode # For example

Warning
Compose key will stop working when ibus engine is not xkb:*

To inform Qt ibus is now the input method, run:

user $qtconfig

Plasma

On Plasma, the daemon should be started with ibus-daemon -dr --panel=/usr/libexec/kimpanel-ibus-panel instead.

Note
The path to pass to --panel is somewhat system-dependent. Older systems in particular may have it at /usr/lib64/libexec/kimpanel-ibus-panel instead. To find the right path for your system, ensure that kde-plasma/plasma-desktop is installed with the ibus USE flag, and then search the list of files installed by that package for kimpanel-ibus-panel, using e.g. qlist kde-plasma/plasma-desktop | grep kimpanel-ibus-panel or equery files kde-plasma/plasma-desktop | grep kimpanel-ibus-panel.

This line should be placed in a login script, not a pre-startup script. See Knowledge Base:Configuring environment variables for more information.

Tip
The Input Method Panel widget in KDE may provide a better integrated experience with IBus on KDE. To launch IBus with Input Method Panel, add the widget by right-clicking on a panel or the desktop and typing Alt+D then A.