Hi all!

I just started studying Chinese, so I tried to set up KDE to input pinyin.

First of all, there is not a single page on the whole documentation that discusses how to setup input methods aside from https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/Kimpanel which is confusing to say the least. The only documentation I can find is from the Arch Linux wiki, which is pretty outdated. I wonder if there are any KDE users that input Japanese, Chinese or similar languages... I could understand that I'm supposed to use fcitx, but the instructions

Anyway, I'm running Kubuntu, with two keyboard layouts (English and Italian).
I installed fcitx and some other packages (full list at the bottom) and rebooted.

At this point I'm stuck. If I run fcitx I get a little keyboard icon in the panel, and I can access the configuration, but there is no way to activate it when I type in my applications. The default trigger is Ctrl+Space but that doesn't do anything and changing the keys doesn't do anything. The only thing that happens is that suddenly I can't switch between KDE layouts any more.

If I add the KIMpanel widget I get all the icons, but still no way to trigger the input.
The first icon (penguin with a brush), when clicked, shows a menu with "Toggle Input Method", "Configure Current Input Method", and "Restart". The first option doesn't have effect, the second opens the configuration tool.
The second icon (a keyboard) says "No input window" when hovered and if clicked shows a menu with "Keyboard - English (UK)" and "Google Pinyin". Clicking them has no effect.
The other icons are specific to Chinese (traditional/simplified, punctuation, half/full width), and a virtual keyboard, which pops up but can't be clicked in any part.

Can you please help me?
Thanks in advance

List of installed packages

Code: Select all

fcitx-bin/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-config-common/focal,focal,now 0.4.10-3 all [installed,automatic]
fcitx-config-gtk/focal,now 0.4.10-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-data/focal,focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 all [installed,automatic]
fcitx-frontend-all/focal,focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 all [installed,automatic]
fcitx-frontend-gtk2/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-frontend-gtk3/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-frontend-qt5/focal,now 1.2.4-1build2 amd64 [installed]
fcitx-googlepinyin/focal,now 0.1.6-4build1 amd64 [installed]
fcitx-module-dbus/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-module-kimpanel/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed]
fcitx-module-lua/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-module-x11/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-modules/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx-ui-classic/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx5-frontend-qt5/focal,now 0.0~git20200118.2e38c95-1build3 amd64 [installed]
fcitx5-module-quickphrase-editor/focal,now 1.2.4-1build2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
fcitx/focal,focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 all [installed]
libfcitx-config4/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx-core0/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx-gclient1/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx-qt5-1/focal,now 1.2.4-1build2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx-qt5-data/focal,focal,now 1.2.4-1build2 all [installed,automatic]
libfcitx-utils0/focal,now 1:4.2.9.7-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx5-qt-data/focal,focal,now 0.0~git20200118.2e38c95-1build3 all [installed,automatic]
libfcitx5-qt1/focal,now 0.0~git20200118.2e38c95-1build3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfcitx5utils1/focal,now 0.0~git20200128.9e3bc8d+ds1-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]