You might have to log out and back in to see the various layouts.
To enable phonetic typing for Tamil, search for Keyboard input methods in the dash and open it.
Go to Input method tab and click on Select an Input method. Scroll down to Tamil and you will have a couple of options to install. Choose Phonetic from the list and install it.
[ There is an updated answer for Ubuntu 14.04+. ]
Yes. You can type Tamil phonetically in Ubuntu 12.04.
Install the following packages:
You might have to log out and back in to see the various layouts.
To enable phonetic typing for Tamil, search for Keyboard input methods in the dash and open it.
Go to Input method tab and click on Select an Input method. Scroll down to Tamil and you will have a couple of options to install. Choose Phonetic from the list and install it.
These are the steps for Ubuntu 14.04:
Install the
ibus-m17n
package:Log out and log in again.
Select the Tamil (phonetic (m17n)) (IBus) option in Text Entry.