Penpower, MSCIM and missing virtual keyboard?

[009N]

I did search the forums and found no solution so I guess starting a new thread should be fine.

Here is the issue. I have installed these mscim packages from extras-devel:
- mscim
- mscim-modules-table
- mscim-n900-ppinputmethod (<= penpower)
- mscim-tables-symbol
- mscim-tables-zh-extras
- mscim-tables-additional

With these packages installed, the virtual keyboard no longer starts (Fn + Ctrl).
even with only mscim and penpower the problem remains.
Does anyone also run into this issue? Any fix? Thanks.

EDIT
sorry there are already a few old threads related to this issue.
still is there any fix for missing virtual keyboard?

[turbowei]

I also use mscim, and couldnt get the virtual keyboard either.

[mveplus]

HI I also have the issue, but I'm using triple languages for input:
ukeyboard package for Bulgarian phonetic keyboard layout and English keyboard standard layout + mscim and mscim pinyin but after installing VKB not working anymore, till now I did not find real solution for may case.

Switching betwееn the languages Eнglish/Bulgarian I use 'Sym/Ctr'+'Space' and switching form English to MSCIM 'Sym/Ctr'+'Shift', and from MSCIM to English - using on-screen MSCIM and choose English layout.
It's complicated but these is the only way of input in these tree languages.

Also MSCIM mscim-n900-ppinputmethod (<= penpower) is really good for handwriting recognition for Chinese and English.

I also notice a noticeable performance slowdown when MSCIM is installed.

The VKB comes back only if I

apt-get purge mscim*

and after reboot.

I'm also eager to find the solution for this problem.

You can look here, and post the same question to developers of MSCIM.

Will keep an eye on this, if someone share some possible solution?

Greetings

Martin

[jakiman]

MSCIM does not have a virtual keyboard. It replaces N900's native input altogether. It's not missing. It's expected. So other than some apps (such as Swappolube) hard coded to use the native input which enables VKB, you will not see the VKB on any other apps as it does not exist with MSCIM. (Opera Mobile is another example but this time, it has its own virtual keyboard and doesn't rely on the native VKB altogether)

[009N]

Thanks mveplus for your pointer.
So the current situation is there is no fix for this except uninstalling/disabling mscim.
Now I can see that there are at least two ways to recover VKB:

Method 1 - Completely uninstall mscim

sudo gainroot (requires the rootsh package)
apt-get --purge remove mscim
rm -f /etc/event.d/scim (if the file is till there)
/usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules
reboot

Method 2 - Disable mscim by stopping it without uninstalling

cd
sudo gainroot
mkdir mscim-bak
mv /etc/event.d/scim ./mscim-bak
/usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules
reboot

Doing so will stop mscim and get you back VKD as well as the CTRL+FN symbols input.
To restore mscim is very easy:

cd 
sudo gainroot
cp mscim-bak/scim /etc/event.d
reboot

(no need to overwrite gtk.immodules again because this is what /etc/event.d/scim does exactly.)

Thanks to Jakiman for correcting my expression. I am not linux expert so I just assume VKD is "missing" in layman's term. :P

Perhaps one possible solution is stopping/restarting scim service on the fly without rebooting, despite the fact that scim launches in upstart (i.e. in /etc/event.d). Do I get it right?

[mveplus]

I would accept that temporary solution if it was not involved Reboot!

What about to try makeing two scripts one for starting and one for stoping MSCIM without rebooting the N900 only restarting X enviroment on the fashion of 'optimize script' make quick restarting of Hildon? and unloading/loading the MSCIM on the fly?

Because rebooting takes time and energy from the battery- and is not convinient at all!

Just quick tought....

[rexii23]

I haven't tested this method with mscim but I'm using maemocjk-scim, which is different to the mscim, but i am able to switch between virtual keyboard and chinese/japanese input at will using a queen beacon widget.

The maemocjk package places two files imdefault and imscim in
/opt/maemocjk/usr/bin

imdefault contains the code:
gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/osso/inputmethod/default-plugins/finger hildon_western_fkb
imscim contains the code:
gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/osso/inputmethod/default-plugins/finger hildon_im_scim

running imdefault will give me my virtual keyboard, running imscim will give me chinese input.

I haven't tested this with mscim however and the chances are slim by the looks of it.

the scim input is not as good as googlepinyin and there is no penpower, but for someone like me that only occasionally input chinese and MUST have English auto-capitalisation & completion, it's a good substitute.

[jukzh]

I got error installing maemocjk-scim
http://paste.ubuntu.com/523756

[snnn]

I wonder if imsetting framework can help us to switch input methods without reboot.
http://code.google.com/p/imsettings/

[jukzh]

Ok i think i fugured:
Create these:

Nokia-N900:~# cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-ON
"/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/hildon-im-module.so" 
"hildon-input-method" "Hildon Input Method" "hildon-input-method-framework" "/usr/share/locale" "*" 

Nokia-N900:~# cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-OFF
"/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-scim.so"
"scim" "SCIM Input Method" "scim" "/usr/share/locale" "*"

Nokia-N900:~# cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules.status 
0

And to swap run this:

Nokia-N900:~# cat imvk-swap.sh 
#!/bin/sh
#/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-OFF
#/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-ON

VKBON=$(cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules.status)

if [ "$VKBON" == "0" ]
then
    echo 'Switching to 	ONBOARD...'
    cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-ON  > \
	/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules
    echo '1' > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules.status
else
    echo 'Switching to 	PINYIN...'                    
    cat /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules-vkb-OFF  > \
        /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules         
    echo '0' > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules.status 
fi

After restarting app, you input on, should work