Bug#988540: im-config: breaks the keyboard configuration
Gunnar,
Thank you for very accurate assessment of the situation.
On Tue, 2021-05-18 at 00:22 +0200, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
> On 2021-05-17 22:19, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > On 2021-05-17 21:11:16 +0200, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
> > > I think it's too much to ask from a simple Xsession plugin such as
> > > im-config that it should be responsible for preventing any kind of
> > > possible conflicts.
> >
> > Then it should not be started by default. If it is so important,
> > desktop environments could depend on it and enable it on their side.
>
> If you run "apt rdepends ibus" on a Debian system you see that basically
> only input method packages depend on ibus. (gnome-shell recommends it,
> which is a special case.) But the output is free of random applications
> which depend on ibus.
>
> Well, not in your case, since you installed zoom. I can't tell why they
> made zoom depend on ibus, but I'm pretty sure it's a rare exception.
I can confirm this situation here too. It didn't bother me since I was
using ibus.
At least, zoom should have used RECOMMENDS and user should have avoided
to install ibus.
> So whatever you think about it, your case is special. ibus was installed
> for you even if you didn't really ask for it, and since it pulled
> im-config, ibus is configured and launched automatically by default. On
> top of that you have an advanced keyboard configuration using an xkbcomp
> call in ~/.xsession, and somehow those things don't play well together.
Yah
> The im-config behavior is based on the assumption that if you install an
> input method framework such as ibus or fcitx, you want to use it. It's a
> reasonable assumption and it makes it easier for input method users.
>
> Actually im-config checks the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable,
> and theoretically it wouldn't be very difficult to disable it by default
> if that variable is unset/empty. But personally I would not like to see
> such a change. The interest of input method users carries greater weight
> IMO.
>
> Maybe somebody comes up with a clever solution which makes everybody
> happy. Short of such a solution and for now, please just disable or
> remove im-config and move on.
For wayland based applications, they can't use XKB thing. That's why
ibus included such XKB functionality now to support European language
on Wayland. At the same time you need to configure ibus for such
special features. Gnome Tweaks can do it. So theoretically, using
dconf, you should be able to set the same effect even with ibus. But
the best approach is not to install ibus if you want pure classic X
based desktop. If zoom depends on ibus and if you can live without
ibus, create fake ibus package with equives. This may be cleanest
solution for non-free package creating problem.
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