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I'm trying to set up japanese input in gentoo. I didn't know where to
start, so I googled for it. The first thing I found, said to install
something called "kinput2", and something called "canna", and invoke it
with "kinput2 -canna &". I did, but got an error message that said
kinput2 could not connect to the kanji database (which would be "canna").
I noticed that when I emerged "canna", emerge gave the following message:

* Updating dics.dir for Canna ...
*
* Added //var/lib/canna/dic/dics.d/00canna.dics.dir.
*
* Done.
*
*
* Canna dictionary format has been changed.
* You should rebuild app-dict/canna-* after emerge.

To be honest, I don't understand what that means. Figuring the problem was
with canna, I emerged Wnn, which I understood could be a replacement for
canna. But "kinput2 -wnn &" gives me an error message that -wnn isn't a
valid argument. I tried google again. I didn't find a solution to the
problem, but Google directed me to another tutorial that suggested
something called "scim" (http://scim.freedesktop.org/), so figuring the
whole "kinput2+canna/Wnn"-thing was a mess, I emerged scim, and followed
the steps in that tutorial. Everything went well, untill I got to the
stage of actually using it, because, well, it doesn't work. I can start
the setup program, and get a little taskbar icon when I launch scim
itself, but japanese input mode, which is supposed to be activated by
pressing shift+space, isn't. Nothing happens when I push shift+space.
The screenshots for scim show a floating window/bar, like you get
with IME under windows, but I can't get anything like that to appear. When
I start scim, it says "Starting SCIM - GTK Panel of SCIM 1.0.1", but all I
see is a little gray box in the taskbar, which, when right-clicked, gives
me a choice to launch the setup program, or "stick windows". I've never
dealt with stuff like this before, and I'm pretty new to linux too, so I
hope it's something very obvious I'm missing. Anyone familiar with
this stuff got an idea as to what the problem might be?

Why would you bother to do that by hand with Gentoo ?
Start with Mandrake, they have a japanese localisation.
When you are familiar with Linux, then you can move to Gentoo.

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/ja/

John wrote:
I've never
> dealt with stuff like this before, and I'm pretty new to linux too, so I
> hope it's something very obvious I'm missing. Anyone familiar with
> this stuff got an idea as to what the problem might be?
>

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 14:46:08 +0200, Albert wrote:

> Why would you bother to do that by hand with Gentoo ?
> Start with Mandrake, they have a japanese localisation.
> When you are familiar with Linux, then you can move to Gentoo.
>
> http://www.mandrakelinux.com/ja/

Well, this is kind of embarrassing, because I already used mandrake for
about two years. I meant new to gentoo. Besides I don't see why it should
work under Mandrake if it doesn't work under gentoo. I assume they both
have the same system variables in regards to language, etc, and that this
is really more an issue of not being familiar with them at all, in any
distro. Besides, everything else works fine in gentoo.

OK, I understood you were starting Linux with Gentoo.
Mandrake is supposed to deliver a fully working system.
Gentoo is not. You have to do it yourself, moreover.


John wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 14:46:08 +0200, Albert wrote:
>
>
>>Why would you bother to do that by hand with Gentoo ?
>>Start with Mandrake, they have a japanese localisation.
>>When you are familiar with Linux, then you can move to Gentoo.
>>
>>http://www.mandrakelinux.com/ja/
>
>
> Well, this is kind of embarrassing, because I already used mandrake for
> about two years. I meant new to gentoo. Besides I don't see why it should
> work under Mandrake if it doesn't work under gentoo. I assume they both
> have the same system variables in regards to language, etc, and that this
> is really more an issue of not being familiar with them at all, in any
> distro. Besides, everything else works fine in gentoo.
>

John wrote:
> Albert wrote:
>> John wrote:
>>
>>> I'm trying to set up japanese input in gentoo.
>>
>> Why would you bother to do that by hand with Gentoo ?
>> Start with Mandrake, they have a japanese localisation.
>> When you are familiar with Linux, then you can move to Gentoo.
>
> Well, this is kind of embarrassing, because I already used mandrake for
> about two years. I meant new to gentoo.

Don't be embarrassed - I don't think your post implied that you weren't
familiar with Linux. Perhaps Albert simply missed the hyphen in the
subject and put together the words "linux newbie warning". :-D

--
Ben M.

John wrote:

> I did, but got an error message that said kinput2 could not connect to
> the kanji database (which would be "canna").

If my guess is correct, your canna server just isn't running.
Try running these two commands as root:

~> rc-update add canna default
~> /etc/init.d/canna start

--
* Andreas Klauer | ~'' L@@k at Nerd Boy!
* Menaures (a) UNItopia | >> .\\. http://www.Nerd-Boy.net
telnet://UNItopia.de | __ |\ __ dd ______________________
http://www.UNItopia.de - deutschsprachiges Online-Textadventure MUD

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 19:18:34 +0200, Andreas Klauer wrote:

> John wrote:
>
>> I did, but got an error message that said kinput2 could not connect to
>> the kanji database (which would be "canna").
>
> If my guess is correct, your canna server just isn't running.
> Try running these two commands as root:
>
> ~> rc-update add canna default
> ~> /etc/init.d/canna start

You were right. I now get no error message when starting kinput2. I still
get no reaction to shift+space however, but I have few ideas to try out.
Thanks.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 18:51:07 +0200, Albert wrote:

> OK, I understood you were starting Linux with Gentoo.
> Mandrake is supposed to deliver a fully working system.
> Gentoo is not. You have to do it yourself, moreover.

I know. Still lots of stuff that didn't work in mandrake without a
lot of fiddling though

John wrote:
>
> I'm trying to set up japanese input in gentoo. I didn't know where to
> start, so I googled for it.

Good to know you started in the right place :-)

> The first thing I found, said to install
> something called "kinput2", and something called "canna"

Afaik kinput2 is now obselete.

> I tried google again. I didn't find a solution to the
> problem, but Google directed me to another tutorial that suggested
> something called "scim" (http://scim.freedesktop.org/)

That seems to be amongst one of the current solutions (im-ja, uim, scim).

> so figuring the
> whole "kinput2+canna/Wnn"-thing was a mess, I emerged scim, and followed
> the steps in that tutorial.

Did you remove everything installed by the first try? (Especially any X
config changes?)

> Everything went well, until I got to the
> stage of actually using it, because, well, it doesn't work. I can start
> the setup program, and get a little taskbar icon when I launch scim
> itself, but japanese input mode, which is supposed to be activated by
> pressing shift+space, isn't.

After changing the USE flags to include internationalisation flags
you'll need to recompile your system and applications. If this step is
forgotten there'll simply be no application support.

That said, the tutorial you're using may be outdated. The following
tutorial seems current and is written for Gentoo systems:
http://home.no.net/david/i18n.php

If you can read japanese on your system alright you might find some
helpful information at
http://wiki.gentoo.gr.jp/index.php?%...E3%BD%B8%5D%5D

Hth,
--
Ben M.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 19:19:17 +0000, Ben Measures wrote:

> Did you remove everything installed by the first try? (Especially any X
> config changes?)

No I didn't. I figured kinput2 and scim were completely separate, so it
wasn't necessary. As for X config, I removed what the tutorial told me
to add for kinput2.

> After changing the USE flags to include internationalisation flags
> you'll need to recompile your system and applications. If this step is
> forgotten there'll simply be no application support.

What internationalisation flags? I've had cjk in USE since I installed
gentoo, but not nls. The tutorial mentioned nls, but I was under the
impression that nls was for the entire "system", like, what goes on behind
the screens. Wasn't necessary for just input and output, just like it
isn't necessary to _display_ kana and kanji. Wishful thinking, maybe.
Recompiling everything doesn't sound like much fun.

>
> That said, the tutorial you're using may be outdated. The following
> tutorial seems current and is written for Gentoo systems:
> http://home.no.net/david/i18n.php
>
> If you can read japanese on your system alright you might find some
> helpful information at
> http://wiki.gentoo.gr.jp/index.php?%...E3%BD%B8%5D%5D
>
> Hth,

Thanks, I'll check them out.