About IBus

Language:

Intelligent Input Bus (IBus) for the Linux and Unix operating systems is a powerful multilingual Input Method Framework working with many open-source IM language engines. IBus uses bus-like architecture to process communication between the IBus IM Framework and the IM language engines. This process runs per user session. There is no shared process between different user desktop sessions.

IBus Configuration

IBus is configured per user by the IBus Preference tool (ibus-setup). To access this tool, choose System→ Preferences→ Input Method - IBus. The following tasks describe some major configuration changes you can make.

How to Add New Language Engine

Click the Input Method tab in the IBus Preferences window.
Select the preferred IM language engine.
Click Add.

How to Add New Input Method Trigger Key

Click the General tab in IBus Preferences window.
Click the ... button on the Enable or disable label. Then click ... button on Key code label and information dialogue pops up. Now press the preferred key combination for trigger key and click Close button on information dialogue. Then press Add and OK button on Select Keyboard shortcut for trigger window.
Trigger key is used to activate IBus on focused application. If IBus is not activated, characters from input devices are sent straight to the focused application. The default trigger keys are shown in the Enable or disable label.

How to Configure the Language Panel Location

In the IBus Preference tool, select a configuration from the Show Language Panel menu.
There are three possible locations for language panel position.
- Embedded in menu (default) - Language panel is embedded in notification area of GNOME panel
- When active - Language panel is shown as independent window only when Input Method is activated
- Always - Language panel is always shown as independent window.
Click OK.

How to Add a New Language Engine in IBus

Choose System→Preferences→ Input methods – IBus.
IBus Preferences window opens, click on the Input Method tab
Select the Select Input Method and select the desired input method.
Click the Add button to add it to the selected list.
To make the new input method the default, click the Up button. Move the selection to the top of the list.
Log out and log back in to use the currently selected input method as the default.

Language Engines Available on the IBus Input Method Framework

The following Language Engines are available on the IBus Input Method Framework.

Installed by default during installation process for the desktop
- Anthy - Japanese
- Chewing - Traditional Chinese
- Hangul - Korean
- IBus-Sayura -- Sinhala
- IBus-XKBC - Keyboard Emulation IM Engine framework
- SunPinyin - Simplified Chinese
- Various Language Engines based on multilingualization. For more information, see http://www.m17n.org
Optional Language Engines
- Pinyin - Simplified Chinese Language Engine
- Various Language Engines based on IBus table framework

Input Method for Indic Languages

The following table summarizes the available input methods for Indic languages.

Table 4-1 Input Method for Indic Languages

Locale	Language	Input Methods
`as_IN.UTF-8`	Assamese	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout
`bn_IN.UTF-8`	Bengali	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, probhat layout, Unijoy keyboard layout
`en_IN.UTF-8`	English	No input method necessary
`gu_IN.UTF-8`	Gujarati	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout
`hi_IN.UTF-8`	Hindi	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout, Remington typewriter layout, input method with `typewriter' method
`kn_IN.UTF-8`	Kannada	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, KGP method
`ks_IN.UTF-8`	Kashmiri	Input method simulating Kashmiri keyboard.
`ml_IN.UTF-8`	Malayalam	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, Mozhi input method, Swanalekha input method
`mr_IN.UTF-8`	Marathi	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout
`or_IN.UTF-8`	Oriya	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout
`pa_IN.UTF-8`	Punjabi	inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, jhelum layout, phonetic layout
`sa_IN.UTF-8`	Sanskrit	Input method with Harvard-Kyoto convention.
`ta_IN.UTF-8`	Tamil	Inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, phonetic layout, Renganathan layout. tamil99 layout, typewriter layout, "vutam" Type_As_You_Write layout.
`te_IN.UTF-8`	Telugu	Apple keyboard layout for Telugu, inscript layout, ITRANS transliteration, pothana Telugu input method Version 2.0, RTS method

IBus XKBC IM Engine

IBus XKBC emulates keyboard layout using the XKeyboard Configuration Database. All keyboard layouts available in XkeyboardConfig, including keyboard layout variants, can be emulated on the IBus IM Framework. IBus XKBC is available in the Other language category in the IBus Preference tool. The IBus XKBC help provides detailed configuration information.

IBus Virtual Keyboard (`ibus-keyboard`)

IBus Virtual Keyboard is a graphical keyboard emulator based on theIBus XKBC Language Engine. It displays a graphical keyboard in a window, and enables the user to input characters to the focused application by clicking key icons. As with IBus XKBC, the IBus Virtual Keyboard supports various keyboard layouts and variants for emulation. To launch the IBus Virtual Keyboard, choose Virtual Keyboard from the IBus menu in the GNOME panel, as shown in the following figure.

To display the configuration menu for the virtual keyboard, right-click on the Virtual Keyboard application window.

Figure 4-1 Virtual Keyboard