Windows™ US International XCompose for Linux

Latin speakers (spanish, brazilian-portuguese) using a US International keyboard layout faces a different behavior from Windows™ to Linux.

This repo was created to try to provide the same Windows™ behavior for latin speakers using an en_US keyboard layout.

Alternative 1: Try enabling ISO-8859-1

Aside the default enabled locale en_US.UTF-8, additionally enable en_US ISO-8859-1.

In Ubuntu, you can do that running sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales. For other distros, feel free to contribute and tell us the related command.

Reboot.

It works fine, but I have one weird side effects in Xorg, like Firefox deleting the first accent on Whatsapp web (it appears to be fine on Wayland).

Alternative 2: Try with ibus

Modern versions of ibus appears to properly handle the .XCompose file.

So, download the file and place it at your home folder (and logout/login) should be enough to get proper latin accents:

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raelgc/win_us_intl/master/.XCompose

Logout and login again.

It works fine, but I still have the same weird side effect of Firefox deleting first accent on Whatsapp web under Xorg (no issues in Wayland).

Alternative 3: UIM

If ibus is not working for you, you can rely on uim as Input Method, which supports both GTK+ and Qt immodules with legacy XIM support.

UIM Proposed Solutions

• Ubuntu/Debian
• Fedora 27 and later
• openSUSE
• Arch Linux

Ubuntu / Debian

Binary Package (Unity and Ubuntu GTK environments)

This deb package has a better approach then the manual installations: it creates a global Compose file, available to all users.

To install, open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:rael-gc/utils
sudo apt update
sudo apt install win-us-intl
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings disabled-gtk-modules '["'keyboard'"]'
im-config -n uim

Logout and login. If that doesn't work, try rebooting the system.

Manual Install (KDE and other QT environments)

Open a terminal and run at home folder:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raelgc/win_us_intl/master/.XCompose
sudo apt-get -y install uim
im-config -n uim

Logout and login. If that doesn't work, try rebooting the system.

Fedora 27 and later

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raelgc/win_us_intl/master/.XCompose
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings disabled-gtk-modules '["'keyboard'"]'
sudo yum -y install uim uim-gtk3
imsettings-switch -q uim

Logout and login. If that doesn't work, try rebooting the system.

openSUSE

Open a terminal and run at home folder:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raelgc/win_us_intl/master/.XCompose
sudo zypper in uim

Logout and login. If that doesn't work, try rebooting the system.

Arch Linux (with GNOME)

Open a terminal and run at home folder:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raelgc/win_us_intl/master/.XCompose
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings disabled-gtk-modules '["'keyboard'"]'
sudo pacman -S uim

Include these lines on file ~/.xprofile:

export GTK_IM_MODULE=uim
export QT_IM_MODULE=uim
uim-xim &
export XMODIFIERS=@im=uim

Logout and login. If that doesn't work, try rebooting the system.

Known Issues

1. Ubuntu Unity Dash don't respect the cedilla. Any other programs will work fine (Firefox, Google Chrome, Gnome programs, KDE programs, etc).
2. Some obscure key combinations haven't been covered yet (acute + ß).
3. Some dead key combinations don't work at all (acute + diaeresis != '")

Uninstall

1. Check the command according your distribution and revert to ibus.
2. Then clear the dconf entry according your distro, by example in Ubuntu run: gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings disabled-gtk-modules '[]'

Troubleshooting

1. It's not working for me

Make sure your keyboard is using English (US, intl., with dead keys) as layout. Make sure you logged out before testing. Make sure you rebooted your computer if logging out didn't work. In case of issues with Qt environments, try define global variables like described in uim/Setup page.

2. Uim is displaying a toolbar

New versions of uim are displaying a float toolbar, which can be removed. Open uim-pref-gtk (or uim-pref-qt) and in Toolbar section change Display value to Never.

3. Double quotes are not working if I press ' + Shift + Space

New versions of uim have Global Bindings using Space and Shift as accelerators. Open uim-pref-gtk (or uim-pref-qt) and at the Global Key Bindings 1 and Global Key Bindings 2 section edit all shortcuts, removing the assigned keys.

4. It doesn't work with an application

Please, take a look in the Uim Troubleshooting guide, specifically in the "Uim doesn't work with an application" section.

If the Qt or GTK immodule causes application crashes or it doesn't work, try to force uim to use XIM in the application:

QT_IM_MODULE=xim opera # force uim to use XIM in Opera

How to Contribute

If you modify this file to improve the compatibility with the original Windows US Intl Behavior, please open an issue in this repo. We'll gladly merge both files after determining those changes will match the usual behavior in Windows, giving credit where due.