Fcitx5 doesn't work with sway

Help
1

None of the guides and issues I’ve found online have been helpful.

My config is as follows:

  i18n.inputMethod = {
    enable = true;
    type = "fcitx5";
    fcitx5.waylandFrontend = true;
    fcitx5.addons = with pkgs; [
      kdePackages.fcitx5-chinese-addons
      fcitx5-rime
      fcitx5-gtk
      rime-data
    ];
  };

I do not have the “简体中文” entry in the fcitx5-configtool, which seems to be the one I need: Pinyin input method in Hyprland / Wayland for Simplified Chinese - #2 by sshine , even though I’ve tried both kdePackages.fcitx5-chinese-addons and qt6Packages.fcitx5-chinese-addons . I only have “Keyboard - Chinese” as an input method.

On super+;, I get a “quick phrase” menu but can’t seem to trigger a menu to enter Hanzi with pinyin. I do not get any popups when I’m just typing (should I? I’m not sure - this seems to say it should always be there: Chinese input - almost there - #9 by shamrocklee). I do have a notification bar icon with the current input method.

2

I use fcitx5 with Sway just fine. We need a lot more details like what app are you using or what app are you typing in? What input methods do you have configured in the fcitx5 config tool? A screenshot of the input methods would be helpful, along with any other config you set.

  i18n = {
    inputMethod = {
      enable = true;
      type = "fcitx5";
      fcitx5.addons = [
        pkgs.fcitx5-gtk
        pkgs.qt6Packages.fcitx5-chinese-addons
      ];
    };
  };

This is my config which has even less, and I’m able to type via pinyin. I’ll see if I can get screenshots of the fcitx5 config later.

3

After nixos-rebuild switch you need to do a reboot and then you may can see the pinyin input method lies in the fcitx5-configtool. Don’t forget to turn off the Only Show Current Language.

4

This doesn’t matter. Once you start searching, that checkbox doesn’t exist.

Anyway, “pinyin” is the method to select; there is no 简体中文 entry (and even the category name likely that depends on your locale).

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Also check the Global Options tab if you want to change the relevant shortcuts to switch input methods.

5

Thanks for trying to help! I’ve changed my config to follow @waffle8946 minimal example.

Reboot doesn’t seem to change anything, I still don’t have a Chinese (China) category in the list of input modes, nor do I have the Pinyin entry in configtool.

I’ve been trying to type into Firefox’s search bar as a quick test, and it is suggesting English words if I activate “hint mode” (alt+ctrl+h by default) with English input method selected. If I select the Chinese - Hanyu Pinyin Letters (with AltGr dead keys) input method (which is the only input method with “pinyin” I can see) in hint mode, it’s still doing something (the word is selected and blue), but it’s not suggesting any options and isn’t turning pinyin into characters when i finish the word.

Maybe I should be using some other mode? But “quick phrase” seems to be something else entirely, and I don’t see anything else that could be useful.

6

That may sounds crazy, I think you may still reboot in the old generation. If you used to use systemd-boot and then switch to grub or any other bootloader, you may face this.

7

I have not switched bootloaders, always used systemd-boot

8

Oh, I don’t use sway, I try to switch to sway. And test what will happen.

9

Oh, sorry. It seems that sway doesn’t support my gpu driver.

10

I found the same problem. I use rime instead of kdePackages.fcitx5-chinese-addons, but when I tried to add chinese-addons to the configuration and then rebuild, fcitx5 crashed, and so did fcitx5-configtool. Maybe there is something wrong with this package, I can’t be sure, but as long as I remove it, everything returns to normal.

EDIT: I found that it was me setting QT_QPA_PLATFORM to xcb that caused it. Have you set this environment variable?