< Previous article   Next article >

Keyman for Linux: Some of my keyboards don't work properly

Symptom: You experience problems when typing in certain applications with some keyboards. This affects keyboards that replace previously typed characters, e.g. IPA (SIL) or Khmer Angkor, and affects applications that are not compliant, i.e. don't support surrounding text. One typical application is Chrome/Chromium.

Solution: There are a number of things you can verify:

• Keyman needs a patched ibus version to work properly with non-compliant apps. The patched version is available on launchpad (ppa:keymanapp/keyman). See Common Questions.

• In general, flatpak and snap apps might show problems because they are missing an updated component. Since they bring their own versions of the libraries they need they are missing the updated ibus libraries. It is recommended to remove the snap/flatpak version and install the .deb version instead. A Google search will find sites that show how to install the .deb package instead of snap/flatpak.

• If you experience problems in LibreOffice Writer, make sure you installed the full version of LibreOffice, not just Writer. The latter is missing some libraries that connect Writer with gtk/ibus and thus Keyman. The missing packages are libreoffice-gtk*.