Chinese input on Fedora 45: four routes compared, measured, and how to choose

Chinese input is genuinely the roughest edge on Fedora. Not because configuration is hard, but because one requirement has four mutually incompatible technical routes, and online guides mix them freely — so you get halfway through and find the framework does not match.

Everything below is written measure-first, and every number comes from Fedora 45.

1. The default state

On the Workstation 45 image:

rpm -q ibus ibus-libpinyin

ibus-1.5.35~beta1-1.fc45.x86_64
ibus-libpinyin-1.16.5-6.fc45.x86_64

rpm -q fcitx5 fcitx5-chinese-addons

package fcitx5 is not installed
package fcitx5-chinese-addons is not installed

The default is IBus with libpinyin; fcitx5 is not installed at all.

And no Chinese input source is configured either:

dconf read /desktop/gnome/input-sources/sources

The output is empty. That is why the top bar shows no input method icon (as in the screenshot) — you must add a source first.

What is already running

pgrep -a ibus

2321 /usr/bin/ibus-daemon --panel disable
2570 /usr/libexec/ibus-dconf
2580 /usr/libexec/ibus-portal
2581 /usr/libexec/ibus-engine-simple
3154 /usr/libexec/ibus-x11
3037 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/share/ibus-typing-booster/engine/main.py --ibus

Three things to note:

• ibus-daemon is running; --panel disable means GNOME draws the panel itself
• ibus-typing-booster is loaded by default and provides completion
• ibus-engine-simple is a placeholder engine — it does not mean Chinese is available

2. Four routes, measured

Install transactions measured on a minimal system (dnf install --assumeno output):

Route	Packages	Download	Disk	Changes framework
IBus + ibus-rime	10	8 MiB	23 MiB	no
IBus + ibus-libpinyin	11	28 MiB	193 MiB	no
fcitx5 + fcitx5-rime	62	26 MiB	118 MiB	yes
fcitx5 + fcitx5-chinese-addons	88	—	—	yes

(fcitx5 + chinese-addons also upgrades 6 packages and replaces 6 — the longest transaction of the four.)

The table already answers most questions:

1. Stay on IBus unless you must switch — switching means environment variables, GNOME integration and tray handling, a much larger failure surface
2. ibus-rime is the lightest: 10 packages, 23 MiB, an order of magnitude smaller than the libpinyin route
3. Both fcitx5 routes pull 60+ packages and require imsettings or environment variable changes

Measured: installing all four at once

To check whether the four engine sets can coexist, I installed every route on one Fedora 45 system:

rpm -q ibus-libpinyin ibus-rime fcitx5 fcitx5-chinese-addons fcitx5-rime

ibus-libpinyin-1.16.5-6.fc45.x86_64
ibus-rime-1.6.0-3.fc45.x86_64
fcitx5-5.1.23-1.fc45.x86_64
fcitx5-chinese-addons-5.1.15-1.fc45.x86_64
fcitx5-rime-5.1.15-1.fc45.x86_64

All four coexist without conflict: inside IBus, libpinyin and the rime engine sit side by side; inside fcitx5, the pinyin and rime engines do the same. The real either-or choice is which framework runs, not which packages you install.

On the fcitx5 side the bundled diagnostic confirms the engines are registered:

fcitx5-diagnose | grep -E "Pinyin|Rime"

Cloud Pinyin 5.1.15
Pinyin 5.1.15
Extra Pinyin functionality 5.1.15
Rime 5.1.15

fcitx5-diagnose reports 30 enabled addons and 0 disabled, with all four Chinese engines among them.

3. Route A: IBus + Intelligent Pinyin (nothing to install)

If ibus-libpinyin is present (the Workstation image includes it), nothing needs installing:

1. Open Settings → Keyboard
2. Under Input Sources click ”+”
3. Choose Chinese (China) → Chinese (Intelligent Pinyin) → Add
4. The top bar now shows the indicator; Super + Space switches

Tip

If rpm -q ibus-libpinyin says it is missing (typical on minimal desktop installs):

sudo dnf install ibus-libpinyin

Measured: 11 packages, 28 MiB download, 193 MiB on disk — larger than expected because of the dictionaries.

4. Route B: IBus + Rime (recommended for a better typing feel)

Rime is the best-regarded open-source input engine, and it plugs into IBus directly without changing frameworks.

sudo dnf install ibus-rime

ibus-rime.x86_64    1.6.0-3.fc45
librime.x86_64      1.16.1-4.fc45

Measured transaction: 10 packages, 8 MiB download, 23 MiB on disk.

Then:

ibus restart

Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources now lists Chinese (Rime); add it.

Caution

Adding the source is not enough — you must log out and back in. Measured: after changing the source in a live session and even restarting ibus, typing still produced ASCII; after a logout/login it worked immediately.

On first login a notification appears: “ibus-rime — Rime is under maintenance …”. That is Rime deploying its dictionaries; wait for it to finish before typing.

What it actually looks like

That is the real candidate window for typing nihao.

Note the traditional characters mixed in (妳好, 逆號, 擬) — Rime’s default schema, 朙月拼音, is traditional-first.

Switching to simplified

Press F4 (or Ctrl + backtick) for the schema menu:

〔方案選單〕
1 朙月拼音   2 中/半/漢/。   3 朙月拼音·簡化字   4 朙月拼音·語句流   5 注音

Press 3 for 朙月拼音·簡化字, then type wenti:

Every candidate is now simplified. The choice is remembered, so you do it once.

Rime’s default keys:

Action	Key
Chinese/English	Shift
Scheme menu	Ctrl + backtick
Page candidates	, . or - =
Select	number keys, or space for the first

Note

Rime user data lives in ~/.config/ibus/rime/ for ibus-rime and ~/.local/share/fcitx5/rime/ for fcitx5-rime. The two are not shared — switching frameworks means redeploying dictionaries.

5. Route C: fcitx5 (when you need more)

fcitx5 wins on plugin ecosystem and candidate window feel, at the cost of replacing the whole framework.

sudo dnf install fcitx5 fcitx5-chinese-addons fcitx5-configtool fcitx5-autostart fcitx5-gtk

Versions in the F45 repository:

Package	Version
fcitx5	5.1.23
fcitx5-chinese-addons	5.1.15
fcitx5-configtool	5.1.16
fcitx5-autostart	5.1.23
fcitx5-gtk	5.1.7
fcitx5-rime	5.1.15

Caution

fcitx5-chinese-addons is 785 KiB as a package, but the transaction is 88 packages (opencc, Qt libraries, dictionaries). That is the answer to “why did one input method download hundreds of megabytes”.

fcitx5-gtk is mandatory — without it GTK applications cannot type Chinese, which is the most common “installed but useless” cause.

Switch the framework:

sudo dnf install imsettings
imsettings-switch fcitx5

Caution

imsettings is not preinstalled on the Workstation image either. Measured: rpm -q imsettings → package imsettings is not installed, and imsettings-info → command not found. Without it there is no imsettings-switch.

Then log out and back in — imsettings reads its configuration at session start.

fcitx5 + Rime

For the fcitx5 candidate window with the Rime engine, install fcitx5-rime (5.1.15) instead of chinese-addons:

sudo dnf install fcitx5 fcitx5-rime fcitx5-configtool fcitx5-autostart fcitx5-gtk

Measured: 62 packages, 26 MiB download, 118 MiB on disk — lighter than the chinese-addons route.

6. Third party: is Sogou worth it

Sogou does publish a Linux build and the download page is reachable (https://shurufa.sogou.com/linux returns 200), but there are real problems:

dnf list --available 'sogou*'

Fedora repositories contain no Sogou package at all (empty output).

So the only path is downloading their RPM, and they target el8 / el9 (RHEL 8/9):

Issue	Detail
Package target	.rpm built for RHEL, not Fedora 45
Dependencies	you must resolve missing rpm -qpR entries by hand, and they fight system library versions
Updates	not covered by dnf upgrade; you track the vendor site yourself
Closed source	keystrokes pass through vendor dictionaries and cloud candidates; evaluate the privacy policy
Removal	installed libraries may be depended on by other packages, leaving a messy uninstall

Caution

Forcing el8/el9 packages onto Fedora 45 most often ends in dependency conflicts or a framework that will not start. If you simply want good Chinese input, ibus-rime or fcitx5-rime are the safer choices — they live in the official repositories and are maintained with the distribution.

Sogou is not impossible, it is simply not packaged for Fedora, which makes it a “you own the maintenance” option. Prefer the four repository routes for daily use.

7. Wayland caveats

Fedora 45 Workstation defaults to Wayland, where:

• Prefer imsettings-switch over hand-written environment variables
• GTK_IM_MODULE, QT_IM_MODULE and XMODIFIERS may not take effect, because GNOME has a native input protocol
• Some apps (especially Electron/Chromium) need explicit flags: Chromium accepts --gtk-version=4 or --enable-wayland-ime, pick one only, and the latter depends on compositor support

Check the session:

echo "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"

8. Troubleshooting order

Work through this in order — it saves a lot of time:

Step	Command	Look for
1. framework alive	pgrep -a ibus or pgrep -a fcitx5	a running process
2. engine registered	ibus list-engine then grep pinyin	a Chinese engine
3. source added	dconf read /desktop/gnome/input-sources/sources	empty means not added
4. GTK module	rpm -q fcitx5-gtk (fcitx5 route)	missing means no Chinese in GTK apps
5. session type	echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE	wayland or x11

Note

ibus list-engine prints Can't connect to IBus. on a plain text TTY — that is the missing desktop DBus, not a broken input method. Run it in a graphical terminal.

9. Which one to pick

Your situation	Choose
fresh install, just needs to type	nothing — add Chinese (Intelligent Pinyin) in Settings
better Chinese feel without touching the framework	ibus-rime (10 packages, 23 MiB)
need fcitx5 candidates/plugins	fcitx5 + fcitx5-chinese-addons (88 packages)
want fcitx5 with the Rime engine	fcitx5 + fcitx5-rime (62 packages, 118 MiB)
must have Sogou	grab the vendor RPM, accept dependency conflicts and manual updates

Common traps

Symptom	Cause
no indicator in the top bar	no input source configured (dconf read is empty)
fcitx5 installed but no Chinese	fcitx5-gtk missing
imsettings-switch: command not found	imsettings is not preinstalled
framework switch did nothing	no logout/login
chinese-addons downloaded hundreds of MB	the transaction is 88 packages, expected
ibus list-engine cannot connect on a TTY	no desktop DBus; use a graphical terminal
env vars ignored on Wayland	switch via imsettings-switch instead
Rime dictionaries gone	different config paths per framework; redeploy

Related pages

• Fedora 45 Workstation — desktop tour
• Install PHP — another “install then configure” case
• SELinux — how to reason about blocked desktop apps
• Official: Fedora input method docs
• Upstream: Fcitx 5 on Wayland