RevPi Core 3 with Chinese typewriting

[hikaru2001]

Hello,

I want to typewrite Chinese word in the graphical interface of RevPi Core 3. Could you pls tell me how to do that? Thank you!

[zhan]

Hi, generally speaking, to type Chinese in RevPi Core, what you need is the SCIM (https://sourceforge.net/projects/scim/).
I have tested it with RevPi Core 3, and here I would like to give you some hint about the steps:
1. Config the locales with following command

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

and choose the following items if you use simplified Chinese

• en_US ISO-8859-1

• zh_CN GB2312

• zh_CN.GBK GBK

• zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8

if you use traditional Chinese, consider following items:

• zh_TW BIG5

• zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8

• zh_HK BIG5-HKSCS

• zh_HK.UTF-8 UTF-8

and following items might be better for Singapore's Chinese characters:

• zh_SG GB2312

• zh_SG.GBK GBK

2. Install the Chinese Fonts with following command

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sudo apt-get install fonts-arphic-gbsn00lp fonts-arphic-gkai00mp

other possible fonts sets might be fonts-arphic-bkai00mp, fonts-arphic-bsmi00lp, fonts-arphic-ukai, fonts-arphic-uming
3. Install the SCIM

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sudo apt-get install scim scim-pinyin scim-tables-zh

4. Before startx, export LANG and XMODIFIERS with following commands

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export LANG="zh_CN.gb2312"
export XMODIFIERS="@im=SCIM"

variable LANG might be zh_TW BIG5, etc for other Language sets
5. After startx, start the scim as a deamon

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scim -d

6. Then with CTRL + Space, you can switch the input methods

[hikaru2001]

Hello Zhan,

I have tried all the steps and installed scim successfully. However I still can't use Ctrl+Space to switch the input methods. I also use another key board, but it still doesn't work. Do you have some idea?

[zhan]

Hi, Have you done the step 4 before the X window starting ? I had come across the same problem. But after exporting the LANG and XMODIFIERS before X windows starting , I was able to use CTRL + Space to switch IMs

[hikaru2001]

Hi Zhan,

Thank you for you help!
I do Step 4 in command line before startx, then it works. Now I can enter Chinese in the graphical interface.
And I have a new question:
Should I do Step 4 manually every time when I restart Revolution Pi?

[zhan]

Hi,
basically adding the commands to the correct startup scripts can approach your target.
till now I found that in /etc/default/locate the LANG and XMODIFIERS can be set
and in the ~/.config/autostart you might be able to find the location for scim -d.

[hikaru2001]

Hi Zhan,

Your method works. And a little thing to be corrected:
"LANG and XMODIFIERS can be set in /etc/default/locale"
not "/etc/default/locate"

Thank you so much for you help

[zhan]

thanks a lot for your correction