steam-for-linux Steam doesn't recognize ibus input

I'm trying to learn Japanese. As such, I have ibus set up with the Anthy engine to enable me to type Japanese characters. My main method of changing to the Anthy engine is to press Alt+, but when doing this on Steam, it just types the. If I enable Japanese input then click on Steam, it simply types the normal Latin characters instead of the Japanese.

Processor Information: Vendor: GenuineIntel Speed: 2801 Mhz 4 logical processors 4 physical processors HyperThreading: Unsupported FCMOV: Supported SSE2: Supported SSE3: Supported SSSE3: Supported SSE4a: Unsupported SSE41: Supported SSE42: Supported

Network Information: Network Speed:

Operating System Version: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (64 bit) Kernel Name: Linux Kernel Version: 3.2.0-36-generic X Server vendor: The X.Org Foundation X Server release: 11103000

Video Card: Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GT 240/PCIe/SSE2

Driver Version:  3.3.0 NVIDIA 310.14
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID:  0x10de
DeviceID:  0xca3
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1280 x 1024
Desktop Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Primary Display Size: 14.80" x 11.85"  (18.94" diag)
                                        37.6cm x 30.1cm  (48.1cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 1024 MB
Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x

Sound card: Audio device: Realtek ALC888

Memory: RAM: 5927 Mb

Miscellaneous: UI Language: English LANG: en_US.UTF-8 Microphone: Not set Total Hard Disk Space Available: 187359 Mb Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 108211 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports: Fri Jan 18 05:26:12 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130118002559_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-b20ecb2a-04c7-4f28-8167-a79aa2130117'' Fri Jan 18 23:49:08 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130118184858_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-3435baa7-42fc-4d8d-8a1b-627722130118'' Fri Jan 18 23:49:37 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130118184927_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-e68ffbdb-adc7-447b-b663-343482130118'' Fri Jan 18 23:49:46 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130118184937_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-65a271f3-982e-45cb-9f2f-b531f2130118'' Tue Jan 22 07:41:17 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130122024111_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-c1dadfef-1acd-4642-a72d-d46302130121'' Tue Jan 22 07:41:53 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130122024144_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-20e46035-8afc-46aa-ba3e-e230b2130121'' Tue Jan 22 07:42:50 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130122024241_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-c1e12300-ce4c-4e2b-87d7-040a02130121''

Jan 22 '13 08:01 DarthBrandon

I don't know anything about ibus or anthy so I don't know how they hook into X, but the steam client only uses X input managers for international character input. That looks at the system locale to see what language the input manager will initialize with. If you change the system locale to Japanese do you have better results?

Jan 22 '13 23:01 gdrewb-valve

I think I tried that, and there wasn't any difference.

As far as I can tell, ibus is compatible with XIM, but there do seem to be some limitations. Ibus doesn't work for Adobe Flash text input, nor does it work for Windows apps under Wine.

Jan 22 '13 23:01 DarthBrandon

OK, thank you for the info.

Jan 23 '13 00:01 gdrewb-valve

In fact, ibus works for Windows Applications under Wine, using wine-xim (in wine-x11.drv).

Feb 08 '13 17:02 felixonmars

As a side note, this also applies to ibus in "everything on the whole screen" mode.

Feb 26 '13 13:02 Sakura-xx

A temporary solution is to use pidgin-opensteamworks chat functionality. http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-opensteamworks/

Mar 14 '13 15:03 heralden

unnamed qq screenshot20140303224235

KNEEL PLEASE ! WE HOPE INPUX FIX IN OSX OR LINUX !

rime in fcitx in Linux or normal chinese input in OSX or Squirrel in OSX.

Please do not ignore this for less users.

Mar 03 '14 15:03 kokutoukiritsugu

kinda related: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2287

Mar 17 '14 20:03 Spanguole

Confirming issue here as well. Seems like Steam just uses SDL2 input rather than ibus?

Apr 07 '14 01:04 HybridEidolon

Yes, I'm experiencing the inconvenience as well. Hoping that it being fixed soon.

Jun 01 '14 12:06 albusshin

As of 6/22/2014, the problem still exists.

Jun 22 '14 10:06 hrzhu

For what it's worth, IBus IME support just went into libSDL2, so we are currently waiting on the next libSDL2 point release before this issue is ready to be re-evaluated for a solution.

Jun 22 '14 17:06 Tele42

Same here, using fcitx, can't even switch to russian/japanese layout from english one.

Jun 28 '14 03:06 mk0x9

Using iBus on Ubuntu 14.04. Still an issue.

Jul 27 '14 13:07 jamieleshaw

This issue still exist(2016-6-25)

Jun 25 '16 09:06 BeyondLimitation

Using ibus-kkc / libkkc 0.3.5 (Japanese ime with kana/kanji conversion) through iBus 1.5.14 on Arch Linux, kernel 4.7 with steam package version 1471380192 - still an issue. Switching input options using the hotkey defined in iBus works though. iBus's built-in English international with AltGr dead keys input works.

Aug 17 '16 06:08 lekro

Four years into this problem, does anyone know the status of this bug? ibus input is not working for me, either.

Feb 04 '17 22:02 yankee14

Oh look, another issue that Valve still hasn't fixed after 4+ years.

Let's place bets! I'll go with Q42019, by community workarounds.

May 28 '17 01:05 HellishINC

Let's place bets! I'll go with Q42019, by community workarounds.

Already "worked around" a few years ago by not using the official client and using pidgin with opensteamworks plugin.

May 28 '17 07:05 Spanguole

I meant in the scope of the actual client and not a third party program that is a frontend for the browser api. For that you might as well just use the browser instead of installing a dedicated program. There are also other "workarounds" that require patching SDL but those aren't really worthwhile either.

May 30 '17 05:05 HellishINC

This problem has still not been solved, or it has not been solved?

Nov 09 '17 09:11 Visitant0226

I'm no longer using ibus so I can't say but I can tell you UIM does (mostly) work with steam and games.

Nov 09 '17 20:11 HellishINC

It's almost 5 years. Dota2 can input chinese a year ago but why steam client still can't input ?

Dec 26 '17 05:12 wangling12

Yeah this bug is really annoying. When fcitx is running one cannot switch keyboard layout or activate fcitx input method. Killing fcitx daemon kinda "unlocks" keyboard layouts change-over, but this is not a good solution if you need to input CJK characters.

Mar 07 '18 08:03 openmindead

2018-04-22 20-23-52 More than half of steam users are simplified Chinese users. But!!! Up to now, we can not input Chinese into the Linux client.

Apr 22 '18 12:04 wangling12

So, as the Steam chat is being reworked, I really hope this includes changes that will resolve whatever has been holding it back and will finally bring Fcitx and others to Steam Linux. I can't think of anything more fundamental to a chat client than being able to write.