No keyboard input in LibreOffice 3.3.1 with SCIM or IBus

English Applications
#1

Friends, I came across an issue, that used to be in one of previous versions of OpenSuse - no keyboard input in OpenOffice (now in LibreOffice) when SCIM is running.

On Opensuse 11.4 I ran into this problem once again and have no idea what to do.

On fresh install of Opensuse 11.4 and KDE with English (or Russian) language as primary language and Chinese as additional language SCIM is installed automatically. And in this case it works in every app (both QT and GTK), but LibreOffice.
As soon as I quit SCIM, everything starts to work OK (but I have no opportunity to input Chinese characters in this case).

That was difficult, but I managed to install IBus instead of SCIM on fresh install. And - surprise - got right the same behavior. Input works EVERYWHERE, but LibreOffcie. I quit IBus and input starts to work OK there.

I’ve tried to switch IM method in qtconfig to IBus, ran “gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules” - all this was recommended in similar threads - nothing worked.

What could this be? Is there a solution to keep Chinese input enabled in LibreOffice with either SCIM or IBUS?

Thanks in advance!

P.S.
To test the input I’ve tried the following apps:
QT - kwrite
GTK - stardict
Java - jedit
Input worked OK everywhere, but LibreOffice.

And one note: when I say “no input” - it exactly means, that there is no keyboard input. Not only typing, but also navigating menus with arrow keys and using keyboard shortcuts is disabled.

#2

Hi,

have a look at [tdf-discuss] Unable to use SCIM to import CJK languages into LibreOffice on 64-bit Ubuntu 10.10 - The Document Foundation Mailing List Archives](http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/msg05098.html) and the solutions proposed there.

HTH

Lenwolf

#3

Thanks for the reply!

I came across this thread and it didn’t help. I have the global variables set correctly.

I’ve tried almost everything I could find on the net.

I’m going to provide a quick instruction, how to reproduce this bug soon.

#4

This bug is easily reproducible:

I used Opensuse 11.4 KDE live-cd written on USB flash disk.

  1. Run LiveCD with default language settings (English) and make sure LibreOffice works OK.
  2. Connect to the internet
  3. Run software management, don’t install all that stuff that it suggests (just to save some time)
  4. Search for “ibus”
  5. Install “ibus-qt”, “ibus-gtk”, “ibus-m17n”. You may add whatever else you want.
  6. Relogin and make sure that IBus has autostarted (it should have icon in system tray)
  7. (optional) open IBus settings from tray and add some input methods there, which you like (note, that some of them are buggy)
  8. Open KWrite and test the input - should be OK.
    9. Open LibreOffice and see no input.
  9. Close LO and quit IBus. Launch LO and see that it works OK again.

That’s it. That’s what I have, whatever I try.
Using SCIM instead of IBus shows exactly the same behavior - you may try it out the same way.

P.S.
As I mentioned, this bug used to be in one of previous versions of OOorg with SCIM and the treatment was to use scim-bridge as input method (which really worked). Now with libreoffice and scim-bridge enabled it doesn’t work again…

#5

replacing scim with ibus did not help. still no input into libreoffice documents.
and w/o scim or another input method for japanese my computer is a bit less useful.

#6

Exactly. I consider this bug as quite important, as a number of users won’t be able to use their native language in office suite.

Personaly, I can’t switch to new Opensuse because of this. Have to keep 11.3, because SCIM works OK there.

#7

I’m also experiencing this issue now that I’ve installed scim because I need Japanese input.

#8

Solution and a work around found!

Solution: wait for new version of LibreOffice - it should be fixed there.
If you don’t want to wait, you may try use a custom build of LibreOffice from one of the buildservice users - it’s fixed there (see the bugzilla discussion for more info)

Workaround:
VERY simple.
edit /home/[your-profile]/.bashrc
add the following line:

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde

Relogin or reboot and enjoy - everything should work OK now. That worked for me with SCIM. Probably tomorrow, I will test it with IBus.

#9

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I got this message after I logged back in “bash: export: `000_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde’: not a valid identifier”
Input still does not work for me in Libreoffice. Where did you find out about that work around?

#10

The problem is that there are 3 letters “O”, not zeros (0) :slight_smile:

Before adding this to .bashrc try to input that line in
terminal - you should get no error and LibreOffcie will work OK.
Afterwards, add it to .bashrc to make make this variable set each time you login automatically.

The link to the bugzilla, where you can find this workaround is in my previous post.

#11

I think I’m doing something wrong, when I use that command input in LibreOffice works, but only if I start it from the terminal even after adding it to .bashrc and rebooting.

#12

Strange thing, in my case it helped…

I think you should try unstable build of LO then, if it maters for you.

To ease things, you may try to edit LO shortcut and make it look somewhat like this:
“OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde soffice”
Probably, this may help, until we get patched version in stable updates.

#13

I hope this gets fixed soon =(

It is quite impossible to work in 11.4 due to this…

#14

I am a total beginner here. I do not understand this first step.
edit /home/[your-profile]/.bashrc

I assume the second step…code OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde should be entered into terminal? is that all i need to do?

#15

On 03/24/2011 08:06 AM, Linuxinlennox wrote:

> I am a total beginner here. I do not understand this first step.
> edit /home/[your-profile]/.bashrc
>
> I assume the second step…code OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde should be entered
> into terminal? is that all i need to do?

i can NOT confirm the prescription will work, but i can tell you how
to do it…

please NOTE! while i am pretty sure what i’m about to you will work
safely to add that line of code to bashrc, i have zero idea if the
change to bashrc will work as advertised or not–so, please read the
caveat in my sig before beginning!

“edit /home/[your-profile]/.bashrc” means to open the named file
(bashrc) in a file editor so that you can then add the string given in
the second step…

i do wish you had declared which desk top you use…you didn’t so i
will assume the same as mine…try this:

  1. hold down left Alt key and press F2

  2. a run pop-up will appear, in copy and paster this into it, and then
    press enter


kwrite ~/.bashrc

NOTE: if you use Gnome instead of writing kwrite you need use a basic
gnome editor by name, maybe gedit, but i don’t remember for sure

  1. an instance of Kwrite with the hidden file named bashrc in your
    home directory will open, in it press the down arrow until you get to
    the very bottom

  2. then copy and paste into bashrc this


#
# user added following advice in
http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=455916 (to solve some
keyboard problem)
export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde

  1. after the paste is complete, hit enter one more time (bashrc must
    have an empty line at its end)…

  2. hold down Ctrl and press S (to save what just put in)

  3. hold down Alt and press F4 (to close) Kwrite

  4. “Relogin or reboot and enjoy”

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

#16

Am I added correctly?

Sample .bashrc for SuSE Linux

Copyright (c) SuSE GmbH Nuernberg

There are 3 different types of shells in bash: the login shell, normal shell

and interactive shell. Login shells read ~/.profile and interactive shells

read ~/.bashrc; in our setup, /etc/profile sources ~/.bashrc - thus all

settings made here will also take effect in a login shell.

NOTE: It is recommended to make language settings in ~/.profile rather than

here, since multilingual X sessions would not work properly if LANG is over-

ridden in every subshell.

Some applications read the EDITOR variable to determine your favourite text

editor. So uncomment the line below and enter the editor of your choice :slight_smile:

#export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
#export EDITOR=/usr/bin/mcedit

For some news readers it makes sense to specify the NEWSSERVER variable here

#export NEWSSERVER=your.news.server

If you want to use a Palm device with Linux, uncomment the two lines below.

For some (older) Palm Pilots, you might need to set a lower baud rate

e.g. 57600 or 38400; lowest is 9600 (very slow!)

#export PILOTPORT=/dev/pilot
#export PILOTRATE=115200
#export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde

test -s ~/.alias && . ~/.alias || true

#17

Thanks, that was perfectly worded instruction. i didn’t even need to ask questions. Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail so it was easy to follow.
Unfortunately, no cigar after reboot.
I am having so much trouble with this new upgrade , I wish i never did it.
KDE desktop by the way,

#18

On 2011-03-24 10:36, marcoslai wrote:

> Am I added correctly?

no

> #export PILOTPORT=/dev/pilot
> #export PILOTRATE=115200
> #export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde

The # means the command is disabled.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

#19

On 03/24/2011 10:36 AM, Linuxinlennox wrote:
> Thanks, that was perfectly worded instruction. i didn’t even need to
> ask questions. Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail
> so it was easy to follow.

welcome…unfortunately, sometimes when i do that i get a note saying
my post was condescending, i guess because they thought by making it
easy i had assumed they knew nothing. (though they hadn’t bother to
tell their experience level, as you did.)

> Unfortunately, no cigar after reboot.

so, you should go back into bashrc and remove the lines you put
in…OR easier/safer and less likely to become a mess, just put one
of these # in front of the “export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde”

its called “commenting out” the # tells bash to NOT read or use the
line…you can see in bashrc lots of settings with a # in front,
none of those will be used by the system…

when you have removed or commented out the code, then save (Ctrl+s)
and exit (Alt+F4) and done…

if you decide to remove, be SURE to leave a blank line below the last
line with text in…

> I am having so much trouble with this new upgrade , I wish i never did
> it.

ok…let me ‘talk’ about that a little: i used openSUSE 10.3 (went
end-of-life in October 2009) until February of this year because it
worked, it was stable, dependable, reliable AND it did everything i
needed it to do…

until my bank changed their software and i had to get some new things
going here…had that not happened i would STILL be on openSUSE 10.3
because while upgrades hold the hope and promise of exciting new
things and wonderful experiences they ALSO hold the chance of
frustration, etc…

here is my philosophy, it doesn’t fit everyone:

Use what works.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

If it must be fixed:
-Do it the most simple way which will work.
-Do it the way least likely to cause failure
-Read the instructions before fixing, rather than afterwards when
trying to recover from a bad ‘fix’
-Figure out how to undo what you are about to do, BEFORE you do
it…that is, have a recovery plan in case what you do makes stuff
worse than it was (if you had a recover plan for this upgrade [which
you said you wish you hadn’t done] you could just undo it)

some folks say a real hacker would say something like this:
If if ain’t broke you ain’t trying hard enough.
or … fixing it enough.
or … far enough out on the leading edge.
or … experimenting enough.
or … are using old stuff.

i’m not a real hacker.
but, i AM old stuff…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

#20

Friends!

Now the updated LO should work fine with SCIM (which helped me).

Try to check for LO updates from default repos. If there is nothing new, add “Stable LibreOffice repository” from community repository list and switch the packages from system repository to that new one. You will have updated stable LO, where this problem is already fixed! :slight_smile:

No need in that workaround any more, so, please, disable it to avoid any problems (remove that line form .bashrc).

If you need instructions how to do that, just ask, I will post a small howto (that’s very simple).