Puppy Linux 5.7.1 : Installing Chinese Input

I have an old dell desktop with Win XP on it that runs slowly. Though it is old I thought I’d try a different Linux distribution on it. The smaller ones were Puppy Linux Precise 5.7.1 2013, and Debian Dog Jesse. Here is how I put Chinese input on Puppy Linux Precise 5.7.1.

My old Dell is a Dimension 1100/B110, 2006, P4 Celeron, 2.66mhz, 778mb ram. It is old.

I downloaded Puppy Linux Precise 5.7.1, their long term support version, i486 retro version, 200mb. This version was based on Ubuntu Precise 12.04, no longer supported. I checked the md5checksum, burned it onto a DVD, loaded it into the old Dell desktop and it started up right nicely. The PC connected to the internet, the browser worked and it was pretty fast for video. The iso is only 200mb, so I was surprised. Puppy Linux fit all into ram!

Happy I was, that the old computer was working so well and so fast. But I had to have simplified Chinese on it, and this is where the trouble began.

“icake” seems to be the go-to-guy for Chinese input on Puppy Linux. While he is industrious, his instructions are frustrating. I had no idea what to do, and he had Chinese .pets (Puppy’s Extra Treats, extra download modules for Puppy Linux. Cute, eh?) for every sort of Puppy version. This just complicated everything. The thread goes on for 28 pages. As my Puppy Linux Precise 5.7.1 distro is relatively new, it was on pp28.

Choose One: SCIM or FCITX
A couple of notes to cut through the fog. You need either SCIM or fcitx. One or the other, and not both. I downloaded both and got very confused. I finally got SCIM to work, precise 5.7.1 was released by Barry K on Aug 3, 2013, chinese input post Tue 21 Feb 2017) so these instructions are for SCIM. I did not use the Full Chinese (complete OS in Chinese) but the half Chinese (Chinese input and display)

Download the SCIM File
You need this SCIM file:

scim Chinese input platform:
scim_1.4.9-en-zh-precise-12.0.0.pet (21.6 mb)

Fortunately icake has the links on page 1:

Universal Half-Chinese Pets 萬用半中文包: https://goo.gl/kdfkFG
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1pJjrVGR

Unfortunately the file is not on the Google Drive link. Fortunately the file is on the Baidu link. Unfortunately you cannot do this from your newly installed Puppy Linux, because its included browser, Opera, is not allowed to access Google Drive, and if you could access Google drive, the file is not there anyway. I downloaded Firefox, just to be told by Google Drive that I needed to upgrade. The Baidu link is in Chinese, and as you cannot yet render Chinese (the purpose of this exercise) you will only see small rectangles for Chinese on the screen! On Baidu you could click on the “Half-Chinese Language pets” partial label to get to the directory, but you would not know this as you could not read the rest of the Chinese. Why? Because you still do not have Chinese installed on Puppy Linux, that is why. It is best if you do this with another computer that does render Chinese, and that you can read Chinese as well.

From Baidu download the file scim_1.4.9-en-zh-precise-12.0.0.pet to a USB drive.

Installing Chinese to Puppy Linux Precise 5.7.1
You are finally ready to install Chinese.

1. Boot up Puppy and get a network connection
2. Install the Chinese .pet: Navigate to your USB drive, find the file scim_1.4.9-en-zh-precise-12.0.0.pet and click to install. Wait for he install to finish. It will tell you that changes will not take effect until you restart X server (later)
3. Install Sun pinyin: I prefer SunPinyin, but this step is optional. To install it start up the Menu > Setup > Puppy Program Manager (PPM) and search for “scim”. There will be a scim-sunpinyin-2.0.3 file. Click it, look for dependencies and download it from the ubuntu library.
4. Menu > Setup > SCIM Input Method Setup > IMEngine >Global Setup: I unchecked traditional Chinese, as well as all other simplified Chinese methods except Google Chinese and SunPinyin. This is your preference. Click Ok. It will tell you that changes will not take place until you restart SCIM (later).
5. You now need to restart x server, followed by a restart of SCIM. Puppy told you this before, but no worries. I’ll give you the skinny.
6. Restart X server
   

   <ctrl><alt><backspace>: to restart x server
   startx: restart x server

7. Restart SCIM
   Find a unix terminal program. In Puppy it is called “Console” and is the white monitor icon at the top. Type these commands:

   sudo pkill -9 scim
   scim -d

That is it, but you won’t see anything change until you enter a program that allows you to input Chinese. You should see a keyboard at the bottom of the screen for SCIM. Menu > Document > Geany or Leafpad, then <ctrl><spacebar> and the SCIM horizontal window should pop up with your Chinese input style. <ctrl><alt><arrow down> will toggle to the next Chinese input style. Type your pinyin and the screen should look up the Chinese for you.

There are lots of different Chinese input systems for Linux, but getting them installed for your specific distro is a challenge. Here’s one for ibus, which is what I use on Ubuntu 16.04. Here’s a shoutout to Pinyin Joe, who has a bunch of instructions on Chinese input.

And yes, that install was hard to figure out.