Questions[pinyin](ubuntu)

I have the following input methods set up on Ubuntu 20 LTS: English (US), English (Dvorak), Chinese (Intelligent Pinyin), Chinese (hanyu pinyin (m17n)).

I would like to type pinyin with all its available tone marks with the Compose Key, without using the specific input method hanyu pinyin (m17n). Only some of the possible tone marks seem to work with the compose key, and good documentation on this is hard to find or doesn't exist.

Pinyin Tone Marks

In the following examples, replace x with any of the base characters: a, e, i, o, u

• The 1st tone is the macron: ¯,
  typed with compose + - + x
• The 2nd tone is the acute: ´,
  typed with compose + ' + x
• The 3rd tone is the caron: ˇ (note, caron is different from breve),
  typed with compose + < + x (< is shift + ,)
• The 4th tone is the grave: `,
  typed with compose + ` + x

Actually, it's more complicated than that, because there's one more "base chracter": ü, so in pinyin these sounds are also available: ǖ, ǘ, ǚ, ǜ. These can be combined with adding more modifiers to the compose key, ǘ can be produced with compose + ' + " + u.

When trying all combinations, some of them work, some don't:

1st tone, ¯, macron, supports all but ǖ
 ā: compose - a
 ē: compose - e
 ī: compose - i
 ō: compose - o
 ū: compose - u
 ǖ: ?

2nd tone, ´, acute, supports all
 á: compose ' a
 é: compose ' e
 í: compose ' i
 ó: compose ' o
 ú: compose ' u
 ǘ: compose ' " u

3rd tone, ˇ, caron, only supports e
 ǎ: ?
 ě: compose < e
 ǐ: ?
 ǒ: ?
 ǔ: ?
 ǚ: ?

4th tone, `, grave, supports all
 à: compose ` a
 è: compose ` e
 ì: compose ` i
 ò: compose ` o
 ù: compose ` u
 ǜ: compose ` " u

My questions

0. Should this actually work? Should I file a bug report? If so; where's the source repo? Who maintains the compose key?
1. Is it possible to type all pinyin tone marks with the Compose Key? The missing combinations are: ǖ, ǎ, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, ǚ.
2. Is it possible to add custom key sequences to the compose key (with a specific dotfile in my homedir for example)? This answer doesn't seem to work since Ubuntu 19: https://askubuntu.com/a/71335/872681

What I do not want:

• Yet another input method for just the pinyin marks, as described in the Hanyu Pinyin input in this answer: https://askubuntu.com/a/728506/872681
  (I've got this working, it's just not as comfortable as using the compose key.)
• Use any form of online editor such as: https://www.pinyin-editor.com
• Use a point-and-click application like the Character Map.

I am trying to have the ability to input Chinese tones directly into text editor in Ubuntu 18.04. I have installed ibus-pinyin and ibus-m17n packages but I cannot find in Region&Language input picker the hanyu pinyin input method, there is only Chinese, Chinese (Bopomofo), Chinese (Intelligent Pinyin), two WuBi variants and that's it.

In here https://askubuntu.com/a/735139/886864 or https://askubuntu.com/a/728506/886864 it is said it should have Chinese (hanyu pinyin (m17n)) but I cannot find it.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to install something else in 18.04?

I use Intelligent Pinyin Keyboard¹ with ibus in Ubuntu to input Chinese characters into my document.

The input-method is designed in such a way that one types the pinyin associated with a character, and then one can select it from a list of characters using numbers 0-9 on the keyboard.

Example:

Problem: in the last week, it sometimes happens that when I press a number from 0-9 the input-method does not yield a Chinese character but the digit I pressed instead. Moreover, any further keyboard input is not interpreted as an input for ibus, and merely written as-is on screen until I manually switch input-mode to pinyin again.

What I tried, in order:

• reboot
• remove the input method configuration, and add again
• reinstall ibus-pinyin

None of these seemed to help.

Q: Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

As a side note, there seems to be a *ibus-engine-libpinyin.*.crash file inside /var/crash that could be related to this problem. However, I am not sure how can I trace this bug-report online and see if it has already a solution online.

edit: my current workaround is to use fcitx instead of ibus .. though this doesn't really solve the problem in the software.

¹ Intelligent Pinyin Keyboard can be installed by the invocation of the sudo apt-get install ibus-libpinyin and can be located in All Setting-->Text Entry-->Input sources to use-->+ as Chinese (Intelligent Pinyin) (Ibus).

when selecting target Chinese character's number, it will display the number instead of the character I needed. Any thoughts?

Ubuntu Version:18.04, Desktop, ibus Libpinyin

e.g. when selecting the third one, it will display as 证件3

I use Intelligent Pinyin Keyboard with ibus in Ubuntu to input Chinese characters into my document.

The input-method is designed in such a way that one starts typing the characters that correspond to the pinyin associated with a character, and then it can select from a list of characters the one that matches the request.

Example.

As shown in the previous example, for each combination of arabic characters there is a long list of potential Chinese characters that might match it. This list of characters may correspond to xue pronounced with several kinds of tones, e.g. xue, xue1, xue2, xue3, xue4.

I would like to be able to use the the tone number to further filter out the list of Characters that is being presented to me, so that the length of the list shrinks as a whole and it is easier to go through it. e.g. If I type yi1, I would like to see only those characters matching exactly that pinyin and tone.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to do so, because pressing any digit from 1 to 0 causes the input method to choose one of the listed examples.

Is there any other input-method, a patch or a different configuration that can help me achieve my goal?

Note that I don't want to get pinyin text as a result (as asked in similar questions on this site), but the Chinese Characters.