Problem
On KDE Plasma, users cannot configure input methods (IMEs) such as those required for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean input, in the initial KDE configuration tool (plasma-setup). You might expect that picking Chinese, Japanese etc. on the Keyboard Layout screen would configure an appropriate input method, but it does not, it only configures keyboard layouts.
Note: The issue is only concerned with non-Latin scripts that require an input method to type non-Latin letters and symbols, such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc. For non-Latin scripts that don’t require IME, like Greek and Cyrillic, read this common issue description instead.
Cause
KDE Plasma currently lacks integrated support for configuring input methods within its initial setup or system settings workflow. While frameworks like IBus and Fcitx exist and are widely used, Plasma does not provide a unified UI to manage them beyond limited virtual keyboard settings. Additionally, setup tools like plasma-setup do not yet leverage language metadata (e.g., from langtable) to automatically suggest or configure appropriate input methods.
Related Issues
Workarounds
During plasma-setup, choose or confirm whichever keyboard layout you find convenient for inputting Latin characters.
Once you have completed plasma-setup and logged into a user session, you can then configure IME by using Fcitx5 or ibus:
Fcitx5 (recommended on Fedora KDE)
Fcitx5 tends to be the better-supported choice on Fedora’s KDE Edition and integrates more cleanly with Plasma. Install it (and pick appropriate IME for your case):
sudo dnf install fcitx5 fcitx5-configtool fcitx5-qt fcitx5-gtk
sudo dnf install fcitx5-anthy # Japanese
sudo dnf install fcitx5-chinese-addons # Chinese (Simplified/Traditional)
sudo dnf install fcitx5-hangul # Korean
Then add to ~/.bash_profile:
export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx
Then log out and back in.
Use fcitx5-configtool to configure available inputs.
ibus (alternative option)
Fedora actually ships ibus by default, and GNOME editions pre-configure it — but on KDE Edition you may need to wire it up yourself.
Install the appropriate ibus engine for your language:
sudo dnf install ibus-anthy # Japanese
sudo dnf install ibus-libpinyin # Chinese (Simplified)
sudo dnf install ibus-rime # Chinese (Traditional/advanced)
sudo dnf install ibus-hangul # Korean
Run ibus-setup to add your input methods through its GUI.
Add the required environment variables to ~/.bashrc:
export GTK_IM_MODULE=wayland
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULES=wayland;ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
Then log out and back in.
This should allow you to input non-Latin characters.