SCIM

SCIM is an input method that allows Linux users to input multiple languages.

General
It is best to add the following USE flags in your file.

CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean)
If you are planning to input CJK, it is best that you add the following to your file.

After adding these USE flags do a simple update.

Setting the Locale
By default, Gentoo is set to POSIX. Since using SCIM means you are going to use Unicode characters, you must set your locale accordingly. The following command should print your locale.

The output should be blank or say "POSIX" on each line unless you have already set your locale to something else.

System
To set your locale, first check your file. You should have set this when you installed Gentoo. Specify your locales here. Check to find what you have to put in for your language. Some examples are listed below.

After you are done here, generate the locales using the following command:

Environment
Edit the following as root to set the locale. Replace en_us.UTF-8 which your locale of choice.

Then run

After doing this, make sure your locale was registered.

Getting SCIM
Getting SCIM is as simple as emerging anything else. In the terminal:

KDE
Some SCIM front-end that you can choose in KDE such as SKIM and SCIM-Bridge.

SKIM (for KDE3 and qt3)
The original SCIM front-end is for GTK+. There is a front end for KDE called SKIM.

SCIM-Bridge (for KDE4 and qt4)
But SKIM is not ready for KDE4 in this time (Sep. 8, 2009). SCIM-Bridge front-end is another choose in KDE4.

Use USE="-kde" for install scim-tables without install qt3. This package includes almost all CJK input methods.

CJK
To have any of these languages, simply emerge the components. You can of course have two or more of these at the same time.

Chinese
Some input methods can choose for Simplified Chinese language.

1. scim-pinyin (拼音)

Some additional input methods can choose for Traditional Chinese language by install gentoo-zh overlay.

1. scim-chewing (新酷音)

2. scim-array (行列30)

Punjabi
Add "pa" to LINGUAS and remerge scim-tables.

Using SCIM
To let applications recognize SCIM as an input method, you have to export some variables. This can easily be accomplished by appending the following lines to.

KDE 3
For KDE (SKIM) do

KDE 4
For KDE (SCIM-Bridge) do

For KDE and kimpanel supported do

And modify

to

xinitrc
Add follow command in your file.

Tada
Now restart your session to make sure all variables are loaded, then press ctrl+space to see the magic.