Kannada Reading and Writing support in Debian Lenny

Now it is very easy to enable and configure Kannada in Debian. Install the following packages using apt-get or synaptic package manager.

If you are a GNOME user then

apt-get install ttf-kannada-fonts scim-bridge-client-gtk scim-m17n

If You are KDE 4.x user then

apt-get install ttf-kannada-fonts scim-bridge-client-qt4 scim-m17n

Create a folder in your home directory with name ".xinput.d" and create a file "all\_ALL" inside the folder created just now.

mkdir $HOME/.xinput.d
gedit $HOME/.xinput.d/all_ALL

Copy below lines in the file all_ALL.

#file: all_ALL
XIM=SCIM
if [ -e /usr/bin/skim ]; then
    XIM_PROGRAM=" "
else
    XIM_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/scim
fi
XIM_ARGS="-d"
if [ -e /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/*/immodules/im-scim-bridge.so ]; then
    GTK_IM_MODULE=scim-bridge
else
    GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
fi
if [ -e /usr/lib/qt3/plugins/inputmethods/im-scim-bridge.so -o \
     -e /usr/lib/qt4/plugins/inputmethods/im-scim-bridge.so ]
then
    QT_IM_MODULE=scim-bridge
else
    QT_IM_MODULE=xim
fi

DEPENDS="scim | skim, scim-bridge-agent, scim-bridge-client-gtk | \
         scim-bridge-client-qt | scim-bridge-client-qt4"

The above xinput script is shared by Ravi

Save the file and logoff. When you login to your system you will see small keyboard icon in the panel, that means all installations and configurations are successful.

How to use SCIM

Open gedit or any other text editor, click on the small keyboard icon in panel and select the required keyboard layout. Now we can use Cntrl + Space to toggle Kannada(Previously selected layout) and English. We can even create the folders/files with kannada name :)

Enjoy!