How to use fcitx5 elegantly on Arch Linux

Introduction

Fcitx [ˈfaɪtɪks] is an input method framework with extension support. Currently it supports Linux and Unix systems like freebsd. It has three built-in Input Method Engine, Pinyin, QuWei and Table-based input methods.

Fcitx tries to provide a native feeling under all desktop as well as a light weight core. You can easily customize it to fit your requirements.

Compared with fcitx4, the experience has improved significantly, and many practical functions have been added.

Here are some stuffs worth mentioning:

The input is much smoother and almost no bugs.
Support Wayland communication protocol.
Generate word candidates based on prefix automatically (See here).
The U-mode for inputting Chinese character in splitting.
Compatible with input method modules of fcitx and ibus.
Support Baidu cloud vocabulary and Sogou cell vocabulary.
The only disadvantage is that there are few themes.

Fcitx5 has been developed for more than three years, and it has been well received by many Archers, so why not upgrade your fcitx4 to fcitx5.

Installation

# Remove fcitx4
pacman -Rs $(pacman -Qsq fcitx)

# Install fcitx5 from community source
pacman -S fcitx5 fcitx5-gtk fcitx5-qt

# Install configuration tool
pacman -S fcitx5-configtool

Below packages are optional:

# Install Chinese addons (Cloud Pinyin, Simplified Chinese)
pacman -S fcitx5-chinese-addons

# Install Rime if you better like it (Traditional/Simplified Chinese)
pacman -S fcitx5-rime

# Install Japanese IM
pacman -S fcitx5-anthy

# Install Japanese IM using Google Engine
pacman -S fcitx5-mozc

Configuration

Default Profile

Fcitx5 uses the Western keyboard by default, for other input methods like pinyin, you should modify the default profile.

Especially, because fcitx5 will automatically overwrite the profile configuration file when exiting, PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO CLOSE fcitx5 process before you start to modify the profile file.

Edit ~/.config/fcitx5/profile

############################################
# DefaultIM settings
#
# 1. Pinyin is for Chinese (supported by `fcitx5-chinese-addons`)
# DefaultIM=pinyin
#
# 2. Rime is for Chinese (supported by `fcitx5-rime`)
# DefaultIM=rime
#

[Groups/0]
# Group Name
Name=Default
# Layout
Default Layout=us
# Default Input Method
DefaultIM=pinyin

[Groups/0/Items/0]
# Name
Name=keyboard-us
# Layout
Layout=

[Groups/0/Items/1]
# Name
Name=pinyin
# Layout
Layout=

[GroupOrder]
0=Default

Environment Variables

At first, get your X Desktop Environment Type:

echo ${XDG_SESSION_TYPE}

Then edit ~/.pam_environment (for X11 and Waylanda users)

GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx5
QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx5
XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx5"

or edit ~/.xprofile (only for X11 users)

# export fcitx5 environment variables
export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx5
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx5
export XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx5"

Additionally, the file ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile also can be used for exporting the environment variables, but the SDDM will only load .bash_profile when both configuration files exist at the same time.

Autostart

If you are a KDE desktop user, you can easily add autostart item on System Settings as below:

or if you are a terminal user and better like termination way, you just need to create and edit ~/.config/autostart/fcitx5.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Fcitx5
GenericName=Fcitx5 Input Method
Comment=Start Fcitx5
Exec=fcitx5
Icon=fcitx
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=System;Utility;
StartupNotify=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=Applications
X-GNOME-AutoRestart=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=false
X-KDE-autostart-after=panel
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

or even You can directly add to ~/.xprofile:

fcitx5 &

Theme

If you don’t like the default theme that comes with it, you can also try to install a new theme, here is a example for demonstration:

Firstly, install the material style theme package:

# Material Style Theme
# https://github.com/hosxy/Fcitx5-Material-Color
pacman -S fcitx5-material-color

then edit ~/.config/fcitx5/conf/classicui.conf file:

# We choose one theme, such as `Pink`, 'Blue', 'Black', etc.
Theme=Material-Color-Pink

Other

Disable Cloud Pinyin

To prevent privacy from being uploaded, you can disable the Cloud Pinyin.

Edit ~/.config/fcitx5/conf/pinyin.conf:

# Enable/Disable Cloud Pinyin
CloudPinyinEnabled=False

Disable Auto DPI

By default, fcitx5 can automatically adjust the UI size according to the DPI of the display, but sometimes it will be wrong. You can set to a fixed font size.

Edit ~/.config/fcitx5/conf/classicui.conf:

# Enable/Disable auto DPI
PerScreenDPI=False

# Font (Here you can set to any font you like)
Font="Noto Sans Regular 14"

Enable Inline Preedit

If you want it to display pre-edited text in the app when available, here you must not miss it. You should create or edit specific configuration file for different IMs:

Pinyin IM: ~/.config/fcitx5/conf/pinyin.conf.
Rime IM: ~/.config/fcitx5/conf/rime.conf.

# Display pre-edited text in the app when available
PreeditInApplication=True

Customize Quick Phrase

At First, create a quick phrase database:

sudo touch /usr/share/fcitx5/data/quickphrase.d/quick.mb

And then append all the quick phrases line by line with the format input output to the file:

eg e.g
asap as soon as possible
omg Oh my god!
...

You can open the Quick Input by pressing down the semicolon, but unfortunately, Rime does not support it.

Conclusion

In general, the input experience of fcitx5 is indeed better than the previous version. The input is relatively smooth. You can input the Chinese semicolon through pressing the semicolon twice. Also, it will automatically switch to half-width punctuation when inputting English.