This time instead of trying SCIM or Ibus I just went for FCITX. After the initial install of Debian 8 Jessie’s fcitx-sunpinyin package, I had to do only a couple of command line statements, and it configured properly. This gave me a crude but working simplified Chinese input and display. Though it looks out of place with the slickness of Enlightenment E17, I am fine with it.
Chinese input is fun, for the warped mind that I am. Yes, it is exceptionally difficult to learn Chinese, but after that little hurdle, and significant eye strain, it is fun. Chinese input methods on Ubuntu 14.04 is somewhat confusing, as it is very easy to install, both for SunPinyin and Pinyin yet there are bugs. I installed SunPinyin, and when I could not input certain characters, also installed Pinyin. Here are the ones I found, and their fixes.
