After a recent system update, i started getting the following warning dialog after every boot:
Fcitx should be launched by KWin under KDE Wayland in order to use Wayland input method frontend. This can improve the experience when using Fcitx on Wayland. To configure this, you need to go to "System Settings" -> "Virtual keyboard" and select "Fcitx 5" from it. You may also need to disable tools that launches input method, such as imsettings on Fedora, or im-config on Debian/Ubuntu. For more details see https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Using_Fcitx_5_on_Wayland#KDE_Plasma
I am only ever using one keyboard layout and input method in general, so instead of enabling Fcitx, I’d prefer to disable it completely. I also don’t need an Input Method switcher.
The problem is, under Settings → Keyboard → Virtual Keyboard, “None” is already selected. I have to select “Fcitx 5 Wayland Launcher (Experimental)”, hit apply, then select “None” and apply again in order to get the Input Method System Tray to disappear.
I am guessing something is launching on startup that shouldn’t be, but I don’t know where to look.
Am I even correct in assuming I don’t need Fcitx and disabling it is a good option?
System Info:
Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.13.4-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Memory: 15.6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Hi! I have no expertise in input methods specifically, but in general - if you don’t need fcitx5, are you able to uninstall/remove that package from your system?
Hi John, thank you so much for your help! I have honestly no idea why I have not tried this before, I guess maybe I was scared I was gonna break something by uninstalling Fcitx5. But of course, this worked flawlessly. Sorry for the hassle!
As a general note…if you distribution has its packaging dependencies set up correctly, then you should generally be able to rely on those to know what can be uninstalled with no issue, and what would cause some cascading problems.
In the case of your distribution’s packages, the only things that fcitx5 is required by are addons, engines, and the like, and an input method-specific library: Arch Linux - fcitx5 5.1.12-1 (x86_64)
On the other hand, if hypothetically you were to say “I don’t think I need XWayland”, and went to uninstall xorg-xwayland, then the fact that it’s required by plasma-workspace means you’d end up basically uninstalling your desktop environment along with it - Arch Linux - xorg-xwayland 24.1.5-1 (x86_64) - if you ignored the messages from your package manager about all the other components that would be uninstalled as a result
That logic doesn’t hold perfectly, of course - outside of image-based systems, there are all sorts of ways that user-installed components can interact unexpectedly and cause problems, but the dependencies set up by your distribution and used by the package manager can be a huge help. For what it’s worth, I found this page pretty interesting for some KDE Plasma-specific background on some of those: Distributions/Packaging Recommendations - KDE Community Wiki
Great point well made. I guess I’m still getting used to the atomic nature of Linux, where most things can be individually (un)installed at will if not needed. The dependency system is really useful, too!
