IBus

IBus (Intelligent Input Bus) is an open source input framework for Linux and Unix.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for app-i18n/ibus Intelligent Input Bus for Linux / Unix OS

+emoji	Enable support for Emoji
+gtk3	Enable the GTK-3 input method module
+gtk4	Enable the GTK-4 input method module
+gui	Enable support for a graphical user interface
+introspection	Add support for GObject based introspection
+python	Add optional support/bindings for the Python language
+unicode	Enable support for Unicode choice
X	Add support for X11
appindicator	Build in support for notifications using the libindicate or libappindicator plugin
gtk2	Enable the GTK-2 input method module
libnotify	Enable desktop notification support
nls	Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
systemd	Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session tracking
test	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
vala	Enable bindings for dev-lang/vala
wayland	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-04-27 09:40 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Except for the basic IBus framework, one or more engines should be installed. For example:

root #emerge --ask app-i18n/ibus ibus-pinyin

Configuration

Have a look at the eix output for more available engines:

user $eix -c -S engine app-i18n/ibus

For graphical toolkit integration, app-i18n/ibus offers gtk (this refers to gtk+:2) and gtk3 flags. There is a separate app-i18n/ibus-qt package for Qt (including KDE) as well. Do not forget to install this latest package if KDE/QT is the main desktop environment for the system.

The app-i18n/im-chooser package can helpful for selecting the preferred input method. As of now all im-chooser packages in the Portage tree are marked unstable.

If nothing starts (no ibus daemon) when a user logs in, put the following in the ~/.xprofile file:

FILE ~/.xprofile

export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
ibus-daemon -drx

The installation can be finely tuned by running:

user $ibus-setup

ibus-setup can be used to set the preferred input methods, the system keyboard, or to add an icon in the taskbar.

You may also use the command-line ibus utility, if you can't or don't want to use ibus-setup:

user $ibus list-engine

user $ibus engine m17n:t:unicode # For example

To inform Qt ibus is now the input method, run:

user $qtconfig

See also

• How to read and write in Japanese