Could you please clarify "natively"? If you expect it to work with every application, the only option is to use X input methods (XIM). The tools you mentioned use this API, afaik.

Thanks for your comment.

What I mean is that it's really difficult, from a user point of view, to even understand what kind of input system KDE is using:

- may I deduce it from the control panel?

- may I change it? Ideally it should as easy as adding a new keyboard layout.

- what are the differences, and why do exists more than one?

- I can't even understand "that work with every application": why should that be true? When I add a new language or change my keyboard I expect it works (and it does) with every application I use, so why should that be different?

Since I'm not even sure which kind of input method my system is using I don't know which kind of packages should I install, I don't understand if I need to reset my system after installing (and why), I don't understand if I need to manually setup some shell variables (every guide tells me different things).

In other words I'm totally lost, and I'm an experienced user using KDE since more than 15 years.

I expect KDE at least to give me hint or suggestion on what packages I need and what else to do to have pinyin input working.

You know, for an asian user having it is a very basic necessity as having a working keyboard for us, so it's not some strange or unusual request.

Another problem is that it seems like I need to run the daemon manually every time: why is this so?

As you have discovered, this is a bit of a mess. :)

It's a huge task though. Fixing it is definitely critically needed, but it will require coordination with many different developers and teams. We're currently in goal-setting mode, and happily one of the proposals is about just this: https://phabricator.kde.org/T11054!

I would recommend that you mark yourself down as an interested party there.

I'm closing this since it's too big a task to be tracked by a single bug report. But rest assured, it's on our radar screens. We're quite aware that this is a broken mess, and very much want to fix it.

Thanks for the infos Nate, highly appreciated!

I'll track the progress of the task, but for the time being, are you able to suggest me which package to install and how to enable it?

I'm afraid not, I'm not an expert in this. I don't know how to do it either!. :(

My gosh it seems like KDE is giving me other headaches now! :D

I'm trying to recover my user on identidy.kde.org (needed to login to phabricator) because I can't remember my username but it seems like _it's not possible to_.

I need the username AND the email to recover the password, but while I remeber the password, I don't remember the username.
It seems like there is no solution: how dumb is that?

I can't even register anymore because it says that my email address is already used. So what's the point to use a username if I can use my email address instead?
WTH! Everything seems so dumb.

I'm stuck, and I can't find any way to recover: do you (or any other!) have any hints?

contact sysadmin@kde.org and they can help you recover your username and/or password.

Thanks very much

> understand what kind of input system KDE is using

To answer this question: KDE applications or Plasma doesn't have an input system. All input is handled in Qt, except for special input widgets such as Kate/KWrite. Qt itself gets input from either X11 or libinput, depending on what session type you use.

The task Nate referenced doesn't propose any "native" KDE method either, because then it would only work with KDE applications. You really need a low-level (X)IM tool.

@Christoph

nice things to know, but this does not solves my problem: which packages do I need to install in my system and how do I configure them to properly use pinyin input?

Since these tools are not desktop-agnostic, it is best to ask for help in any CJK related Linux forum.

I read so many, each one telling different things and nothing I tried works for me.

I'm so pissed.