Adding ibus Input Method Breaks Accents in Spanish Input

Adding Japanese Anthy Input Method to a Spanish installation of Trisquel 6.0 with Spanish and English keyboard distributions activated makes it impossible to add accents to vowels when using the Spanish keyboard distribution.

Steps to reproduce

The following steps assume you have a physical keyboard with English (U.S.) distribution.

1. INSTALL TRISQUEL IN SPANISH
   1. Download the trisquel_6.0_i686.iso 04-Mar-2013 07:40 696M from http://devel.trisquel.info/makeiso/iso/ .
   2. Burn the image to a CD.
   3. Boot from CD.
   4. In the installer screen, select "Español" as the language for installation.
   5. Select "Instalar Trisquel".
   6. In "Bienvenido/a", select "Español" and click "Continuar".
   7. In "Preparando la instalación de Trisquel", click "Continuar".
   8. In "Tipo de instalación" select "Reemplazar Trisquel 5.0 con Trisquel" and click "Continuar".
   9. In "Reemplazar Trisquel 5.0 con Trisquel" click "Continuar".
   10. In "¿Dónde se encuentra?" select "Bogota" and click "Continuar".
   11. In "Distribución de teclado" select "Español (Latinoamericano)" and click "Continuar".

       At this point, you try the keyboard in the text box provided for it. Typing the {[ key and then a vowel creates an accented vowel. Typing the :; key will enter the letter ñ.

   12. In "¿Quién es usted?" fill the user name, computer name and password fields, and click "Continuar".
   13. Wait for the installation to finish and reboot the system when asked for.
2. ADD AN ENGLISH KEYBOARD LAYOUT
   1. Log in to the system.

      Next, you will try writing regular Spanish.

   2. Open "Main menu -> Accesorios -> Editor de textos" and write the following words: papá, popó, niña. You can write them correctly.

      Next, you'll add a new keyboard layout, so that you can alternate Spanish/English layouts by pressing Shift + Caps Lock.

   3. Go to "Main menu -> Configuración del sistema -> Distribución de teclado".
   4. Click on the "Distribuciones" tab.
   5. Click on the "+" button and add "Inglés (E.E.U.U.)".
   6. Click on the "Opciones..." button.
   7. Expand "Tecla(s) para cambiar la distribución".
   8. Tick "Mayús + Bloq Mayús" and click "Cerrar".
   9. Close the "Distribución de teclado" configuration window.

      At this point you see a new icon on the desktop panel indicating you're currently using a Spanish distribution (es).
      Next, you will test switching between Spanish (es) and English (en) distributions.

   10. Open "Main menu -> Accesorios -> Editor de textos" and write the following words: español, maní, mamá. You can write them correctly.
   11. Now press Shift + Caps Lock to change the keyboard distribution to English. You see the icon in the panel changes to "en".
   12. Press the {[ key. You see that the key now inputs a "[" character, not an accent. This is correct.
   13. Reboot your system and repeat steps 2.10 to 2.12. You get the same correct results.
3. ADD A JAPANESE INPUT METHOD
   1. Go to "Main menu -> Configuración del sistema -> Soporte de idiomas".
   2. Click on the button "Instalar o eliminar idiomas".
   3. Tick "Japonés" on the list and click "Aplicar cambios".

      Wait for the Japanese packages to be downloaded and installed.

   4. In the window "Soporte de idiomas", select "ibus" in "Sistema de método de entrada de teclado" and click on the "Cerrar" button.
   5. In the window "Configuración del sistema", click "Métodos de entrada de teclado".
   6. Answer "Sí" to the question, "Los métodos de entrada de teclado (demonio IBus) no se han iniciado. ¿Quiere iniciarlos ahora?".
   7. In the information dialog that appears, click "Aceptar".
   8. In "Preferencias de IBus", click on the tab "Métodos de entrada".
   9. Tick "Personalizar métodos de entrada activos".
   10. In the dropdown list, select "Japonés -> Anthy" and click the "Añadir" button.
   11. Close "Preferencias de IBus" window.
   12. Close "Configuración del sistema" window.
   13. Log out and then log in again.

       Next, you'll use the newly added input method to write Japanese.

   14. Open "Main menu -> Accesorios -> Editor de textos".
   15. Press Ctrl + Space bar to activate Japanese input.
   16. Write the folowing word: nihongo. You see the word is converted to Japanese Hiragana (にほんご).
   17. Press the space bar once to convert the word to Kanji (日本語) and then press Enter. You're writing in Japanese without problems.

       Note: You may have to press Enter twice for the word to be entered. Normally, just one Enter is enough. But this report is not about that issue.

   18. Press Ctrl + Space bar to deactivate Japanese input.
4. USE ALL KEYBOARD INPUTS ON A REGULAR BASIS
   1. Repeat steps 2.10 to 2.12.
   2. Repeat steps 3.14 to 3.18.

Expected behaviour

After following the steps above, and assuming that the currently activated keyboard distribution is Spanish (es):

1. You press the keys M, A, M, {[ and finally A, and you get the word: mamá.
2. You press the keys {[, A, {[, E, {[, I, {[, O, {[, U, and you get: áéíóú.

All input methods and keyboard layouts set (Japanese, English, Spanish) can be used in harmony. You can alternate between input methods in any order and pressing keys in your keyboard input the appropriate characters according to the currently activated input method.

Unexpected behaviour (or what happens instead)

After following the steps above, and assuming that the currently activated keyboard distribution is Spanish (es):

1. You press the keys M, A, M, {[ and finally A, and you get the word: mama. This is wrong because the last "a" should be displayed with an accent.
2. You press the keys {[, A, {[, E, {[, I, {[, O, {[, U, and you get: aeiou. This is wrong because all vocals should be accented: áéíóú.

So you can alternate between input methods in any order, but when you activate the Spanish keyboard layout, you can't write accents.

Reverting Japanese input addition to normalize Spanish input

After following the reproductions steps, the only way I found to set the system to a functional state for Spanish input again, but giving up Japanese features, was:

1. Go to "Main menu -> Configuración del sistema -> Métodos de entrada de teclado".
2. In "Preferencias de IBus", click on the tab "Métodos de entrada".
3. Untick "Personalizar métodos de entrada activos".
4. Close "Preferencias de IBus" window.
5. Go to "Main menu -> Configuración del sistema -> Soporte de idiomas".
6. Click on the button "Instalar o eliminar idiomas".
7. Untick "Japonés" on the list and click "Aplicar cambios".

   Wait for the Japanese packages to be removed.

8. In the window "Soporte de idiomas", select "none" in "Sistema de método de entrada de teclado" and click on the "Cerrar" button.
9. Close "Configuración del sistema" window.
10. Log out and then log in again.