Need Help with Setting Up A Bilingual (or maybe just Japanese) Keyboard

English Hardware
1

Hi everyone. I recently upgraded my version of openSuse Leap from 15.3 to 16.0, and I was hoping that when I did that, the installer would see my new keyboard plugged into the computer, and install any software required to support its use. Unfortunately for me, the installer didn’t do that, so I would like to ask for help in configuring my computer to use the new keyboard and possibly my old (current) at the same time. It’d also be helpful to know if there was anything I could/should have done to enable the openSuse Leap 16.0 installer to be able to install any supporting software/configuration files.

When I installed openSUSE Leap from the USB stick, I had both my old (British) English keyboard plugged in at the same time as the new Japanese one. My thinking was that if it didn’t manage to get the Japanese one set up properly, then it’ll at least be able to get my old one set up properly—with its extra keys for volume control, play/pause, and so on.

I don’t know if my Japanese keyboard is just a standard Japanese keyboard, where the ability to switch to writing in English is common to all Japanese keyboards, or if it is a non-standard feature of the keyboard. I assumed the ability to switch would be a standard feature, but the fact the openSuse installer didn’t automatically set it up has me worried that it might be a non-standard keyboard that’ll only work on Windows because it might only have one driver written for Windows.

The only potentially useful information I can think of to post about the keyboards is the output from hwinfo --keyboard, so here it is. The first item is the new Japanese keyboard, and the second one is my old British English keyboard.

home:~ # hwinfo --keyboard
21: USB 00.0: 10800 Keyboard                                    
  [Created at usb.124]
  Unique ID: eqBD.bPtYyWNEn+6
  Parent ID: uIhY.2DFUsyrieMD
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-4/3-4:1.0
  SysFS BusID: 3-4:1.0
  Hardware Class: keyboard
  Model: "Chicony Electronics HP Wired Desktop 320K Keyboard"
  Hotplug: USB
  Vendor: usb 0x04f2 "Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd"
  Device: usb 0x3f41 "HP Wired Desktop 320K Keyboard"
  Revision: "2.01"
  Driver: "usbhid"
  Driver Modules: "usbhid"
  Device File: /dev/input/event2
  Device Files: /dev/input/event2, /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:4:1.0-event-kbd, /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usbv2-0:4:1.0-event-kbd, /dev/input/by-id/usb-Chicony_HP_Wired_Desktop_320K_Keyboard-event-kbd
  Device Number: char 13:66
  Speed: 1.5 Mbps
  Module Alias: "usb:v04F2p3F41d0201dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc01ip01in00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XkbRules: xfree86
    XkbModel: pc104
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #20 (Hub)

28: USB 00.0: 10800 Keyboard
  [Created at usb.124]
  Unique ID: 4zpN.eZRaBnFeMl6
  Parent ID: uIhY.2DFUsyrieMD
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-5/3-5:1.0
  SysFS BusID: 3-5:1.0
  Hardware Class: keyboard
  Model: "CHERRY Keyboard"
  Hotplug: USB
  Vendor: usb 0x046a "CHERRY"
  Device: usb 0x0023 "Keyboard"
  Revision: "2.20"
  Driver: "usbhid"
  Driver Modules: "usbhid"
  Device File: /dev/input/event10
  Device Files: /dev/input/event10, /dev/input/by-id/usb-046a_0023-event-kbd, /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:5:1.0-event-kbd, /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usbv2-0:5:1.0-event-kbd
  Device Number: char 13:74
  Speed: 1.5 Mbps
  Module Alias: "usb:v046Ap0023d0220dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc01ip01in00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XkbRules: xfree86
    XkbModel: pc104
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #20 (Hub)

47: Serial 00.0: 10801 Console
  [Created at kbd.178]
  Unique ID: ReDs.5lXXuQkv_C5
  Hardware Class: keyboard
  Model: "serial console"
  Device: "serial console"
  Device File: /dev/tty2
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Which desktop environment are you using?

3

That seems to be the Japanese keyboard, https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-wired-desktop-320k-keyboard

Correct?

As you can see in the hwinfo there is nothing that indicates this is a Japanese keyboard so I am not surprised the installer does not offer to install a Japanese keyboard.

localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep ja gives me nothing so standard there is no standard support for a Japanese keyboard.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Localization/Japanese

Seems to me you need fcitx5 and either fcitx5-qt6 or fcitx5-gtk4 and fcitx5-configtool and fcitx5-configtool-kcm6.
For the “fcitx5-Japanese input method for Fcitx5 powered by neural kana-kanji conversion” fcitx5-karukan

4

@Ray How do you specifically want to use the Japanese keyboard? Do you just want the physical JIS keys mapped correctly, or are you looking for Japanese language input? The hwinfo output only tells us about the underlying hardware/USB driver. It’s not for reporting how the keyboard layout or input method is configured.

5

deano_ferrari I’m using KDE for my desktop. I like to keep it simple, so I avoided messing with most settings wherever possible. I enabled desktop effects because I’m having some (hopefully minor) troubles with my GPU, and I remembered that (at least in past versions of openSuse) you couldn’t enable desktop effects without having your GPU driver installed, but aside from that and me needing to change the language from American English to British English practically anywhere there’s a setting for it, the Desktop is in a largely default configuration.

I want to be able to use the additional keys added to the keyboard by the manufacturer so that I can use them to switch between writing English, Japanese Kanji, and Japanese Kana, through the use of these apparently dedicated keys. I’ve seen there are various methods of inputting Japanese text with keyboards. Some methods involved putting literal stickers on English keyboards and installing some software to allow switching between languages by using keyboard shortcuts that you need to hope aren’t spoken for by other software, but I needed to buy a new keyboard anyway, so I decided to buy one that said it was designed for switching between input methods with dedicated keys.

I did try to buy two other keyboards before I bought this one, but this was the first keyboard I ordered that had the keys to enable language switching and did not cause an “out of stock” email to land in my inbox within hours of ordering it.

I only posted the hwinfo output because it was the only thing that I knew of which might hopefully give some information that could be of any use. I’d be happy to post more useful information information about the configuration of keyboard layout or input methods, if you tell me where to get it from.

@marel Yes, that looks to be exactly the keyboard I bought. I did see mentions of this fctix software whilst I was looking at options for Japanese text input. At the time I saw mentions about it, I had bought my new keyboard, but it had not yet arrived. I was still looking for information about using Japanese text input even after I’d ordered the new keyboard because I thought it’d be a safe assumption that whatever drivers it may come with, they will be intended for use with Windows only. I didn’t jump straight to using the fcitx software because despite actually having the keyboard now, I still didn’t know exactly what this keyboard is, and I still didn’t know if it would be the appropriate thing to do.

At the moment, I expect this fcitx thing will be the appropriate path to take, but I’ll wait for input from @deano_ferrari about finding keyboard layout and input method configuration, in case that leads to me being able to use the input method switching keys the way I expect they were intended to be used.

6

Ok, thanks for clarifying further. Please confirm current localectl.

Since you are using KDE Plasma, check System Settings > Keyboard > Layouts. There you can set any required layout.

A useful test may be to understand what happens when you press the dedicated keys. On Plasma Wayland, wev is useful for this. If you are using a Plasma X11 session, thenxev can be used. You will likely need to install the relevant package first. Anyway those utilities, can tell whether the special keys are actually generating distinct events that Linux can see.

7

Before posting the output from any commands, I should note that I had to manually modify all language options I encountered from American English to British English during the installation process, which may account for why the sytem Locale is American English, but the VC keymap and X11 layout are British English. Ordinarily when I’d install a new version of openSuse, I’d just need to change the first language option to British English, and that one change would cascade down through the entire installation process and resultant installation, but this time it didn’t. My guess is that having two keyboards connected during the installation process was the culprit.

Anyway, here’s the output from localectl:

home:~ # localectl
System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    VC Keymap: gb
   X11 Layout: gb
    X11 Model: microsoftpro
  X11 Options: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

I installed xev so that I could post the output it generates when I press the additional keys. It generates a KeyPress and KeyRelease event for each key used, but given that the only thing that changes between each event is the time, I’ll only post the outputs from the KeyPressed events.

The first of the extra keys is the 無変換 (Muhenkan/No conversion) key:

KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x3500001,
    root 0x1e5, subw 0x0, time 41459096, (404,152), root:(1275,594),
    state 0x10, keycode 102 (keysym 0xff22, Muhenkan), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

The second of the extra keys is the 変換 (Henkan/Conversion) key:

KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x3500001,
    root 0x1e5, subw 0x0, time 42479661, (-69,437), root:(802,879),
    state 0x10, keycode 100 (keysym 0xff23, Henkan_Mode), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

And the third of the extra keys is the Hiragana/Katakana/Romaji switching key:

KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x3500001,
    root 0x1e5, subw 0x0, time 37036060, (-358,354), root:(513,796),
    state 0x10, keycode 101 (keysym 0xff27, Hiragana_Katakana), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

I think I’ve found the thing you asked me to check for in System Settings > >Keyboard > Layout. It’s a currently blank box, because it’s disabled, and if I click the enable radio button, then a single entry titled English (UK) appears.

I’ve no idea if I should be fiddling with keyboard layouts in here yet though, because the strange locations of all the punctuation marks and the lack of £ and € signs makes me think it’s based on American English. So I expect I may need some tips or an online manual for making a proper keyboard layout from scratch, especially if I might have to make it play nice with the fcitx software that @marel mentioned before.

1 Like
8

No, the connected keyboards wouldn’t have had any bearing on the language or keyboard-layout settings. Those are configuration choices made during installation rather than something determined from the connected keyboard hardware.

Good to know that xev shows those three dedicated keys are being correctly recognised.

I wouldn’t recommend creating a keyboard layout from scratch. First I would get the normal English (UK) layout working correctly. Set that via System Settings. The Japanese input method can then be dealt with separately, including making use of those dedicated keys.

9

I read my previous response again, and realised I did a very bad job of explaining why I expect I’ll need to make a new keyboard layout or, at the very least, make a copy of an existing one and add modifications to it. I’ll explain my reasoning so that you can tell me whether or not I’m thinking about this the wrong way, so Here goes.

The System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard> Layout section has is empty until I use the enable button, which allows a single English (UK) entry to appear in the list. Regardless of whether or not the single-item list is enabled, my old, en-gb keyboard works perfectly, but even when I make no attempt to use the extra mode-switching keys of my new my new HP Wired Desktop 320K Keyboard, the alphanumeric keys print to the screen as expected, but many of the punctuation keys print completely different punctuation marks from the punctuation marks on the keyboard. This is what I was trying, but miserably failing, to explain, when I was talking about punctuation marks in my previous post.

I don’t know which keyboard layout this keyboard should actually use, but I’m reasonably confident it is neither British nor American English. It’s been quite a while since I’ve used a British keyboard with an American layout (or vice-versa,) but I seem to remember that a tell-tale sign that you need to switch your layout is that when you press the key combination to get a quotation mark you get an @ symbol, and when you press the key combination to get an @ symbol you get a quotation mark, but my new keyboard does not do that. When I press the key combination to get a quotation mark, that’s exactly what I get, but the key with the @ symbol is on a completely different row, and the @ symbol is at the bottom of the key cap, which I would take as an indication that no key combination is required to get it.

Is there any way I can find out which keyboard layout this keyboard should be using? I’m starting to worry I might have wasted money on a keyboard I’m not going to be able to use, when I can’t really afford to be wasting money.

10

See if these help:

11

I’ve been trying to follow this one https://zenn.dev/phanect/articles/b71be371a061ff, but I’ve been having a bit of quite a bit of trouble following it because the guide gradually diverges from my system, and reconciling the differences is becoming increasingly difficult.

I’ve just been making my best guess when the guide differs from my system, and then trying to proceed on the assumption my guess was right, until I find it wasn’t. With regard to the English letters and punctuation marks, I do at least have the keys on the keyboard matching what they print to the screen now, but I’m still struggling with getting the switching keys to switch to Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji composition.

Yesterday, the little icon in the system tray said “en” and I couldn’t get it to change to “jp” to let me type Japanese input, but this morning I started the computer and it’s displaying “jp” and won’t change to “en” even though it is refuses to do anything but output English characters and punctuation. I think slowing down a bit and restarting the computer more often might help a bit. The guide I’m going off doesn’t even mention needing to restart the computer, but many changes I wouldn’t even expect to require a restart only became active after a restart.

I feel like I must be very close to having my keyboard working as intended, but the differences between the guide and my actual system are getting big enough that I’m struggling to apply the information in the guide to my own situation without running the risk of making a horrible mess of everything.

The guide gives me the impression that I chose to do this right in the middle of a transition to a much simpler, more streamlined method of setting up keyboards for Japanese input.

Thanks for all the help so far.

1 Like
12

I think you’re right to slow down at this point. The guide is for KDE neon rather than openSUSE, and from what I’ve read there have been changes to the recommended Fcitx setup, so maybe not surprising that you’re finding increasing differences.

I’d suggest working from what you actually have configured now. I’ll have to rely on some research myself from here though, as I don’t have any personal experience with setting up foreign-language keyboards. Hopefully, others with experience can chime in.

13

One thing I’m not quite clear about from your description: when you say the system tray icon shows en or jp, can you clarify if this is the KDE keyboard-layout indicator or the Fcitx input-method indicator?

I’m just trying to understand if you currently have both KDE keyboard layouts and Fcitx configured, as they perform different functions. Perhaps post a screen shot as that might help to clarify.

The KDE keyboard layout controls how the physical keys are interpreted for each keyboard, whereas Fcitx/Mozc controls Japanese input and conversion (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji). They’re separate things, and you can have both configured at the same time.

14

That was actually one of the things I forgot to ask. Is there any way of backing up my configuration as it stands right now? I was trying to write a bash script as I go, so that I had a reference for what I had done so far and could easily replicate what I’d done before I make my next configuration mistake needed to get back to a state before I made the mistakes. When I started changing things with a GUI , though, I realised I wasn’t going to be able to do that. I’m guessing it’s not going to be just one configuration file I can just cp keyboard.conf keyboard.cnf.bak on, but is there still some way of backing it up?

Me either. Closest I’ve ever come to setting up a foreign language keyboard is setting my computer to use EN-US, because I was dumb enough to buy a keyboard without checking whether it was EN-GB, or EN-US. That’s why I wasn’t even sure whether this new keyboard is bilingual or just straight-up Japanese: I’m just learning everything for the first time as I go. I know that writing Japanese Kanji and Kana are, by far, the best ways of memorising them, but my ability to physically write them is limited, so I just accept typing them as the next best thing that I can do.

I have absolutely no idea. It doesn’t say anything if I hover my mouse pointer over it, and if I right-click it and select “Configure”, the window that opens doesn’t sat it’s associated with either of them: the window’s title bar just says “Input Method — System Settings.”

I’m fairly sure my keyboard layout is configured to be Japanese. It was after I made that change that the punctuation marks on the keys I pressed began to match up with what appeared on the screen. Is this what you’re asking about?

image
image941×686 48.3 KB

I think it’s the fcitx and/or mozc configurations are probably the last piece(s) of the puzzle that I’m missing. The guide you posted that I’m following starts talking about doing the configuration (at 2.2 and 2.3), but that’s where there’s bit of a hole in my ability to follow the guide. It says in 2.2 to go to System Settings > Keyboard > Virtual Keyboard and set the virtual keyboard to fctix5, but there is no Virtual Keyboard section in the Keyboard section of my System Settings window. 2.3 talks about configuring mozc in fcitx5, but it says to right-click a keyboard in the system tray and choose “Configure” from the menu that pops up, but my system has that “en/jp” thing instead, and when I select “Configure” from the menu, there’s a button at the bottom of the window with a keyboard on it. The guide told me to look for a keyboard so I clicked it, but it this opens a window with 3 options that exactly match something mentioned slightly later on in the guide+ selections for “Language,” “Layout,” and “Variant.” The guide says to set the first two to Japanese and the third to Default, but as soon as I do that, click OK, and then click the keyboard button again to check that the settings have been retained, I find that the Language option has been reverted to Any Language. I have id idea what, if anything, this has to do with Mozc,

The rest of the guide seems to talk about Spotify (which I don’t use, and something else I’ve never heard of, but but I get the feeling this parts (2.2 & 2.3) are the important bits I haven’t got right yet.

If there are any questions I’ve forgotten to answer, or any other screenshots would be helpful, please let me know.

Thanks again.

15

I was actually asking what the system tray icon was associated with. If clicking on it and selecting Configure takes you to the System Settings keyboard layout configuration, then I guess that’s what it’s associated with.

Only the Japanese layout is present now (based on the screenshot you shared). Did you intend that? Especially since you also have a US keyboard?

Anyway, the guide’s section 2.3 is not asking you to configure the KDE keyboard layout again. The “Select system keyboard layout” button in the Fcitx configuration is there to tell Fcitx which keyboard layout to use, so that it can add the corresponding Keyboard - Japanese input method. The guide then adds Mozc alongside it.

What appears in the main Fcitx configuration window under “Current Input Method”. According to the guide, that should contain Keyboard - Japanese and Mozc, with Mozc below Keyboard - Japanese. Could you post a screenshot of that main Fcitx configuration window? Hopefully that will give a better idea of where your configuration currently stands.

16

Yes and no. My preference was to keep the old EN-GB keyboard working and also have this newer keyboard working simultaneously, but 2.1 of that guide said to make sure that Japanese is the only layout that’s in the layouts list if it’s enabled. I thought that getting rid of the old EN-GB will just help by keeping things simple and as close to the guide as I can. Also, a big part of the reason I bought this new keyboard was because the wire on the old one is badly damaged, so if it got moved at all, it would stop working and would often be very difficult to get working again, so I’m fine with not being able to continue to use it.

Is this what you’re asking about? I’m sorry if these are annoyingly stupid questions, I’m just really struggling because I don’t remember ever seeing anything titled/labelled Fcitx5 or Mozc since installing them with zypper. As you can see in the screenshot, there’s no mention of eithe in the title bar, or any of the menu options in the list. The only reason I have for even suspecting this might be what you’re asking about is that, when I right-clicked the “jp” in the system stray and chose Configure. I finally noticed thathe icon that was automatically selected on the left of the newly opened window, was the same Tux icon in the system tray from the screenshots in the guide.

image
image939×870 77.4 KB

I notice the buttons at the bottom of the window also sound quite promising, but I’d only be guessing at which to use and how to use them. The large main section of the window used to have two entries: one in the Input Method Off section, and another in an Input Method On section that isn’t there any more. I expect the second one isn’t there any more because I removed English (UK) from the other list about physical keyboards. Is my path to getting a working configuration going to revolve around adding virtual Keyboard layouts to this list with the “Add Input Method” button, and then correctly configuring the keys needed to switch between the virtual keyboards?

Just in case it seems weird that I used the plural “adding keyboard layouts,” I say that because I first added a Japanese keyboard layout, I noticed I there were separate layouts for Hiragana, Katakana, and some other ones. I have no idea what to do about setting up the mode switching, though, because when I click preview to test the layouts, the keyboard keys I would have expected should be used to activate the “Super” keys on the laout—the 無変換 (Muhenkan/No conversion), 変換 (Henkan/Conversion) and Hiragana/Katakana/Romaji switching keys—do absolutely nothing in the layout testing windows you can bring up by selecting a layout and pressing the preview button in the bottom left of the window. I know these keys definitely send their own, distinct signals to the computer, however, because they were one of the first things you had me test with xev. The layout previews do recognise when the Kanji key in the top left corner of the keyboard is pressed, though.

17

If you want to see more details, you will have to use the console, see:

It looks to me by default you have indeed one set of X keyboard settings but you can change that, see the last page

By default Fcitx5 overrides X keyboard settings. (The ones you can set with setxkbmap command or graphical tools provided by desktop environments.) If you do not want that, run fcitx5-configtool and uncheck Addons > XCB > Allow Overriding System XKB Settings.

18

Thanks for the links, marel. I’m going to start reading them as carefully as I can, now. I haven’t even made any changes so far today, and I still noticed some quite strange new behaviour with the input selection and my ability to take screenshots, so I’ll just try to read through those pages as carefully as I can, before I post again with any more problems.

1 Like
19

Okay, so I’ve read through each page, trying to verify each step as I go, and my assumption that I must be trying to get Mozc & Fcitx5 configured right in the middle of some form of architectural reorganisation has only been reinforced. Much like the first guide I tried to follow, I can only follow the steps up to a certain point before the instructions on the website diverge from what is available to me on my computer. I think I have at least realised what the difference is between what I need to do and what I’m actually able to do, though.

I’ll give an overview of of my attempt to follow the instructions, and where the web pages diverge from what I’m seeing on my computer, and show what I expect I should be able to see if I were able to follow the instructions, and compate it with what I actually see.

First are the instructions about installing Mozc: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mozc

1.1 Gives a helpful conceptual outline of how the two pieces of software work together, and then in 1.2 it says conversion quality can be enhanced by installing some additional packages. At the the moment, I just want any kind of conversion and I really don’t care about the quality yet, but it doesn’t matter anyway because these packages named on the page do not appear to exist in the openSuse repos:

home:~ # zypper search fcitx5-mozc-ut fcitx-mozc-ut ibus-mozc emacs-mozc | grep ^[-Si]
S  | Name                       | Summary                                    | Type
---+----------------------------+--------------------------------------------+--------

Section 2.2 notes that fcitx5 is already integrated with KDE’s system settings, and says that if it isn’t already installed, fcitx5-configtool should be installed. I verified that is is installed with

S  | Name                   | Summary                         | Type
---+------------------------+---------------------------------+--------
i  | fcitx5-configtool      | Configuration tool for fcitx5   | package
i  | fcitx5-configtool-kcm6 | Configuration module for fcitx5 | package

and then I even ran fcitx5-configtool in Konsole, just to make absolutely certain of what it is. When the window opened, I realised it was just the window that pops up when you right-click the icon in the system tray and select Configure.

The rest of the page just seems to be tips and troubleshooting advice for when you’ve managed to get further through the process than I have, so I’ll just moved on to the Fcitx5 page to check that: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fcitx5

This page starts off with a miss right away. It says to install the fcitc5-im group (assuming group = pattern) but the following command brings up nothing

home:~ # zypper search -t pattern fcitx5-im
Refreshing service 'NVIDIA'.
Refreshing service 'openSUSE'.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
No matching items found.

However that doesn’t really seem to matter because the first command I tried to get started was

zypper install mozc fcitx5

Which caused the following packages to be installed:


home:~ # zypper search fcitx5 mozc | grep ^[-Si]
S  | Name                          | Summary                                                                | Type
---+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
i+ | fcitx5                        | Next generation of fcitx                                               | package
i  | fcitx5-chinese-addons         | Pinyin and Table IM support for fcitx5                                 | package
i  | fcitx5-configtool             | Configuration tool for fcitx5                                          | package
i  | fcitx5-configtool-kcm6        | Configuration module for fcitx5                                        | package
i  | fcitx5-customphraseeditor6    | Fcitx5 Custom Phrase editor library                                    | package
i  | fcitx5-gtk2                   | GTK+ 2.0 im module for fcitx5                                          | package
i  | fcitx5-gtk3                   | GTK+ 3.0 im module for fcitx5                                          | package
i  | fcitx5-gtk4                   | GTK+ 4.0 im module for fcitx5                                          | package
i  | fcitx5-lua                    | Lua support for fcitx                                                  | package
i  | fcitx5-lua-migration-reminder | Fcitx5 Lua addon to guide users to migrate their fcitx4 configurations | package
i  | fcitx5-pinyindictmanager6     | Fcitx5 Pinyin dictionary manager library                               | package
i  | fcitx5-qt-lang                | Summary: Translations for package fcitx5-qt                            | package
i  | fcitx5-qt5                    | Qt5 IM module for Fcitx5                                               | package
i  | fcitx5-qt6                    | Qt6 IM module for Fcitx5                                               | package
i  | libFcitx5Config6              | Configuration library for fcitx5                                       | package
i  | libFcitx5Core7                | Core library for fcitx5                                                | package
i  | libFcitx5GClient2             | GClient library for fcitx5                                             | package
i  | libFcitx5Qt5DBusAddons1       | Qt5 DBus Addons library for Fcitx5                                     | package
i  | libFcitx5Qt5WidgetsAddons2    | Qt5 Widgets Addons library for Fcitx5                                  | package
i  | libFcitx5Qt6DBusAddons1       | Qt6 DBus Addons library for Fcitx5                                     | package
i  | libFcitx5Qt6WidgetsAddons2    | Qt6 Widgets Addons library for Fcitx5                                  | package
i  | libFcitx5Utils2               | Utility library for fcitx5                                             | package
i+ | mozc                          | Mozc - Japanese Input Method for Chromium OS, Mac and Linux            | package

I’m assuming that the autostart mentioned in 2.2 is in effect because It always appears in the system tray whenever I start the computer.

At this point, I find that the page continues by talking about troubleshooting etc. like the pervious one did, so I guess that means everything that needs to be installed has been installed, and I begin looking for other things I may have missed or got wrong. When looking at part 2.2 of the Mozc page, I notice the bit that says “In the ‘Input Method’ tab, add Mozc in the Add Input Method menu.” This grabbed my attention because, in my first attempt at configuration, I noticed this button presented me with a huge list of nothing but keyboard layouts. This stuck in my mind because I thought adding keyboard layouts from this list must be how I needed to enable switching between English, Hiragana, and katakana input, but I found that despite the size of the list, none of them were Hiragana keyboard layouts.

Because this instruction to add an Input Method, rather than a keyboard layout confused me, I decided to search google for this specific thing. I didn’t really find any information that was of any direct use, but I did keep encountering screenshots like this one.

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Which is completely different from what my system tray icon displays when clicked:

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As you can see from my screenshot, I have two keyboard layouts in place, because those are all that are offered in the menu, but the screenshot from the internet shows that it is using Mozc, rather than another keyboard layout. I get the impression that this is the source of all my woes, and there’s probably no point trying to configure anything else until I can get Mozc to appear as an input method.

Does anyone have any ideas why the list presented after clicking “Add Input Method” doesn’t contain a Mozc option and, even after unticking the Only Show Current Language checkbox, it still contains nothing but keyboard layouts?

20

You’re missing fcitx5-mozc, but I don’t see such a package for Leap 16 unfortunately.

I wouldn’t normally recommend this, but try grabbing this binary package directly, and then install with zypper…
https://software.opensuse.org/download/package?package=fcitx5-mozc&project=openSUSE%3AFactory
sudo zypper in /path/to/the /downloaded/<package>