[x-post] Regression in gnome keyboard layout selection, all Indian xkb layouts disappeared

[Pirate Praveen]

hi,

We need to fix this soon. We first noticed this in the install fest at
Wayanad. It was so disappointing to not be able to enable Malayalam
typing even though the requirement was just inscript :(

We tried to install ibus and fcitx without success, gnome would happily
switch the indicator but can't type anything, fcitx won't show up in the
systray. Choosing a keyboard should not be this difficult, it never was
before.

It seems the GNOME developers (though they are certainly not an
exception) love to rewrite from scratch and remove essential things
(network manager, touchpad settings are other example where new versions
break essential features present in older versions).

See bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=865316 (first bug, we
should have a better way to use ibus and fcitx too)

Thanks
Praveen

[Pirate Praveen]

On ചൊവ്വ 20 ജൂണ്‍ 2017 07:05 വൈകു, Pirate Praveen wrote:
> See bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=865316 (first bug, we
> should have a better way to use ibus and fcitx too)

Workaround to bring back xkb layouts in gnome control center is

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/show-all-sources true

and to permanently bring it back, I opened
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101532

Apparently the Red Hat team (specifically Anish Patil) declared all xkb
is now useless because Hindi needs ksha, thra, jna mapped to a single
key which xkb is not capable!

Not just Hindi, so they blacklisted all Indian layouts :facepalm: And
the xkb developers just accepted that recommendation.

[Pirate Praveen]

On വെള്ളി 30 ജൂണ്‍ 2017 08:46 വൈകു, Nandakumar Edamana wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I noticed it too. Today I switched over to Debian 9. Installation itself
> was a tiresome job. The problem with the IM didn't surprise me as I had
> read your mail before.
>
> I found and followed this page, which says how we can turn of the new
> integrated IM:
>
> https://wiki.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/IBus#How_to_use_other_IM_frameworks
>
> I tried fcitx, and contrary to what you said, it APPEARED on the left
> bottom part of the screen. IM selection was not that easy. I had to take
> the whole configuration screen and push the preferred layout to the top of
> the list each time I had to switch the layout (before that, I had added
> Malayalam, which was already available in fcitx - I had to turn of a
> checkbox though - 'Show current language only' - something like that).

Glad that fcitx worked for you. The issue with blacklisting has been
resolved upstream. We need to update xkb-data package in debian with
this change.

> This is of course irritating. But this page taught me the commands to
> switch IM easily:
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Keyboard_layouts
>
> So I wrote a shell script:
>
>
> #!/bin/sh
>
> if [ -f /tmp/ml ]; then
> setxkbmap us
> rm /tmp/ml
> else
> setxkbmap in -variant mal
> cat /dev/null > /tmp/ml
> fi
>
> Then I created a shortcut for it (which was the next difficult thing since
> GNOME Shell eats up all combinations). What I have now chosen is Right
> Ctrl + Menu.
>
> This is of course not a real solution. But it works for the time being.
>
> Nandakumar Edamana