Missing icon from KDE System Tray

[Ed Greshko]

On 12/20/2011 11:06 AM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 December 2011 04:35:44 Ed Greshko wrote:
>> On 12/20/2011 02:25 AM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>> First, the cryptic stuff....  IBus means Intelligent Input Bus. It is an
>> input framework for Linux.
>>
>> To enable IBus on KDE, GNOME probably has a similar setting (I think it
>> works OK in GNOME), using the classic tree style menu you go to
>> "Settings" and pick "Input Method Selector".  From there you pick "Use
>> IBus".  And you logout and log back in.
> Ok, tried it and can confirm that the system tray icon is "empty". Other than 
> that, the iBus appears to function correctly --- I can left-click on the 
> nonexistent icon to select various input methods, I can right-click on it to 
> get to the menu with preferences etc., and so on.

Yep...  I'd confirmed it with additional users on the same system as
well as in a newly minted F16 VM.  Still nice to get independent and
unbiased verification.  :-)
> What I didn't manage to get working was to switch the input method using the 
> default ctrl-space shortcut. But that shortcut is bad for me also because it 
> interferes with Emacs mark-set, so I didn't even try to get it working.

OK...  The shortcuts do work.
> In addition, under Gnome3 I can see a nice keyboard-like icon in the middle of 
> the top bar, representing iBus, and functioning exactly like the "empty" icon 
> in the KDE system tray. So my guess would be that the devs/packagers forgot to 
> put an appropriate icon in the KDE icon-path.

I don't think it is the case.  But, that is just my guess.
> I didn't try to configure input methods while in Gnome3, so I don't know 
> whether the icon is supposed to change to reflect the current input method, or 
> whether it was just supposed to be a nice little picture of the keyboard all 
> the time (such an ingenious design --- where you are supposed to click to see 
> the current input method --- would not be surprising for Gnome3).

Yes, the visual on the task bar will change to reflect the input method
currently active.
> All in all, it could be a good idea to file a bug against iBus for this thing.

Yes, this will be their 3rd bugzilla filed today.  :-(
> Also, one question --- I use the ordinary KDE infrastructure for changing 
> keyboard layouts (systemsettings -> input devices -> keyboard -> layouts), 
> have configured the (otherwise useless) CapsLock to rotate among layouts, and 
> the current layout is correctly represented in the system tray, using the 
> default "keyboard layout" widget. Everything works perfectly. Can that be a 
> viable alternative for you?
>
> I don't write Chinese/Japanese/similar (yet), so I'm not sure how that would 
> work...
>

No, that doesn't help.  You need an input method since it can take 3-4
keystrokes to form a single Chinese character.  It input method will
also do some predictive analysis to suggest what character you may be
entering to save your typing.

Still debating in my head if this is a systray or ibus bug.

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