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SCIM is an input method framework developed by Su Zhe (or James Su) around 2001, similar to IBus or Uim.

Its stated goals are to:

- Act as an unified front-end for current available input method libraries. Currently bindings to uim and m17n library are available.
- Act as a language engine of IIIMF input method framework.
- Provide as many native IMEngines as possible.
- Support as many input method protocols/interfaces as possible.
- Support as many operating systems as possible.

## Installation

Install the scim package.

### Input method engines

Currently the SCIM project has a wide range of input methods (some may need other libraries), covering more than 30 languages, including (Simplified/Traditional) Chinese, Japanese, Korean and many European languages. These are some of the examples (more can be found here):

- scim-chewing - Chinese
- scim-pinyinAUR - Chinese Smart PinYin .
- scim-tablesAUR - Chinese WuBi or other tables based
- scim-anthyAUR - Japanese
- scim-hangulAUR - Korean

uim can be used as an engine for SCIM by using scim-uimAUR.

## Configuration

Configuring SCIM correctly requires the following three steps:

1. Exporting some environment variables that specify the used input method.
2. Modifying locale related files.
3. Finally, starting SCIM.

### A simple scenario

If you just need SCIM to work urgently in any desktop environment or window manager, put these lines into your xprofile and then reboot:

    ~/.xprofile

    export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
    export GTK_IM_MODULE="scim"
    export QT_IM_MODULE="scim"
    scim -d

These lines can be added to other files that are run at startup, such as: `/etc/profile`, `~/.profile`, `~/.xinitrc` or `~/.config/openbox/autostart` (when using Openbox).

Note: The first environment variable conflicts with some (unusual) options like `XMODIFIERS=urxvt`.

This is a very basic example for configuring XIM (X Input Method) to work with SCIM. XIM is not recommended because it has quite some limitations.

### Note for GTK

If you use GNOME, edit `/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules` by adding follow content at the end:

    /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules

    "/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/immodules/im-scim.so"
    "scim" "SCIM Input Method" "scim" "/usr/share/locale" "ja:ko:zh"

If your `LC_CTYPE` or `LANG` is en_US.UTF-8, change `ja:ko:zh` to `en:ja:ko:zh`.

After making those changes, be sure to reboot. You can find out what input method modules are available on your system by executing `gtk-query-immodules-2.0`.

If SCIM does not work with GTK applications after these changes, check that the GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE environment variable is set to `/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules`.

You can use another file (in this example `~/.immodules`) that contains the necessary information about input methods modules by adding these lines in the file you selected in the section above.

    gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > ~/.immodules
    export GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE=~/.immodules

### Locale-related files

If your keyboard locale is not `en_US.UTF-8` (or `en_US.utf8`), you have to modify the first line of `~/.scim/global` (or `/etc/scim/global` to apply these settings to all users) according to the following example:

    /SupportedUnicodeLocales = en_US.UTF-8,de_CH.UTF-8

and replace your `de_CH.UTF-8` with your locale.

Note: Your locale has to be active (i.e. you have to uncomment it in `/etc/locale-gen` and then execute `locale-gen` as root) and has to be supported by SCIM (most *.UTF-8 locales are).

If you do not know which locales you have active at the moment, you can check it:

    locale -a

(alternatively you can look at `/etc/locale.gen`).

#### Further troubleshooting with locales

If after you have install SCIM and the necessary input tables, SCIM still does not work, then you need to set the `LC_CTYPE` environmental variable in `/etc/profile` to the locale you plan to use. Simply create an entry for LC_CTYPE such as:

    LC_CTYPE="zh_CN.UTF-8"              # if you want to type simplified chinese

Finally you need to generate the locale using the `locale-gen` command.

### Executing SCIM

SCIM can be run by just executing the `scim` command, although it is common to start SCIM as a daemon:

    scim -d

You can put the above command in a script file and execute it automatically. Usual places are `~/.xinitrc` (after environment variables and before DE/WM), `/etc/profile` (after environment variables) or `~/.config/openbox/autostart` (after environment variables and possibly after some sleep command).

#### Note for GNOME

In case you use GNOME as your desktop environment, the command above does not seem to work as expected. Instead, you have to execute the following:

     scim -f x11 -c simple -d

If you want SCIM to start automatically at startup, go to System > Preferences > Session and create a new command with the line above.

Note: If you use the line `scim -f socket -c socket -d` instead, the configuration of your SCIM will be unmodifiable.

#### Note for KDE

In case you use KDE as a desktop environment, the command above does not seem to work as expected. Instead, you have to execute the following:

     scim -f socket -c socket -d

## Troubleshooting

### LWJGL (Lightweight Java Game Library) losing keyboard focus

See these two forum posts for a solution.

### Chrome/Chromium does not take input

Edit the .xinitrc or .xsession file.

    ~/.xprofile

    export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
    export GTK_IM_MODULE="xim"
    export QT_IM_MODULE="scim"
    scim -d

This is a rather sloppy workaround. Also, even with this workaround, Korean users may find scim unusable with Chrome/Chromium, as the preedit string disappears when the space bar or other modifier keys are pressed at the end of a word.

## See also

- GitHub repository
- Arch Linux news page from 2005

Category:

- Input methods

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