Rime Input Method Engine and Clover Input Scheme

2022-06-21 · 3 min read · rime Linux ·

Every Chinese Linux user has experienced a struggle with input methods. When I was a student, I experienced the awkwardness of being unable to type while playing MOBA games. The enemy was about to steal my tower (it was too late to chat late at night), and I frantically typed :help.

Common multilingual input method platforms for Unix-like operating systems include ibus (Intelligent Input Bus) and Fcitx (Free Chinese Input Tool for X). The latest is Fcitx5. I've simply chosen ibus for my current Ubuntu setup. Fcitx5 users should also have their own solutions.

rime is included in the official repository for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and above.

1sudo apt-get install ibus-rime

To install more input schemes:

 1# Mingyue Pinyin (pre-installed)
 2sudo apt-get install librime-data-luna-pinyin
 3# Shuangpin
 4sudo apt-get install librime-data-double-pinyin
 5# Gongbao Pinyin
 6sudo apt-get install librime-data-combo-pinyin
 7# Zhuyin and Diqiu Pinyin
 8sudo apt-get install librime-data-terra-pinyin librime-data-bopomofo
 9# Quick Fifth Generation
10sudo apt-get install librime-data-quick5
11# Shanghai Wuyu
12sudo apt-get install librime-data-wugniu

After multiple attempts, I found that none of the above input solutions were ideal. Wikipedia documents a third-party solution called Clover with a relatively complete vocabulary. I tried it for a while and it works well. The installation process is as follows:

Download the latest configuration file from the release page https://github.com/fkxxyz/rime-cloverpinyin/releases, such as clover.schema-1.1.4.zip, and unzip it to the user folder (~/.config/ibus/rime):

 1➜ rime pwd
 2/home/mephisto/.config/ibus/rime
 3➜ rime sudo unzip -d . ~/Downloads/soft/clover.schema-1.1.4.zip
 4[sudo] password for mephisto:
 5Archive: /home/mephisto/Downloads/soft/clover.schema-1.1.4.zip
 6inflating: ./clover.base.dict.yaml
 7inflating: ./clover.dict.yaml
 8inflating: ./clover.key_bindings.yaml
 9inflating: ./clover.phrase.dict.yaml
10inflating: ./clover.schema.yaml
11inflating: ./sogou_new_words.dict.yaml
12inflating: ./THUOCL_animal.dict.yaml
13inflating: ./THUOCL_caijing.dict.yaml
14inflating: ./THUOCL_car.dict.yaml
15inflating: ./THUOCL_chengyu.dict.yaml
16inflating: ./THUOCL_diming.dict.yaml
17inflating: ./THUOCL_food.dict.yaml
18inflating: ./THUOCL_IT.dict.yaml
19inflating: ./THUOCL_law.dict.yaml
20Inflating: ./THUOCL_lishimingren.dict.yaml
21Inflating: ./THUOCL_medical.dict.yaml
22Inflating: ./THUOCL_poem.dict.yaml
23Inflating: ./opencc/emoji_category.txt
24Inflating: ./opencc/emoji.json
25Inflating: ./opencc/emoji_word.txt
26Inflating: ./opencc/symbol_category.txt
27Inflating: ./opencc/symbol.json
28Inflating: ./opencc/symbol_word.txt

Create default.custom.yaml in the user profile folder with the following content:

1patch:
2"menu/page_size": 8
3schema_list:
4- schema: clover

For example (ignore the color scheme section, which is not used in ibus-rime. Windows and Mac users can use it. ^_^ I just struggled with it out of courtesy. The official statement at the time was ibus users: ibus_rime.custom.yaml does not contain settings for controlling color schemes, font size, and other appearance settings):

 1➜ rime cat default.custom.yaml
 2patch:
 3"menu/page_size": 8
 4schema_list:
 5- schema: clover
 6- schema: luna-pinyin
 7# Color scheme
 8"style/color_scheme": ink # This is used to select the new scheme defined below
 9"preset_color_schemes/starcraft": # Add a new scheme identified as "starcraft" to the color scheme list
10name: 星界我攻霸／StarCraft
11author: Contralisk <contralisk@gmail.com>, original artwork by Blizzard Entertainment
12text_color: 0xccaa88 # Codeline text color. 24-bit color value, written in hexadecimal for easier writing. The order is blue, green, red (0xBBGGRR)
13candidate_text_color: 0x30bb55 # Candidate text color. Specify this color when different from the text color.
14back_color: 0x000000 # Background color
15border_color: 0x1010a0 # Border color. If the color matches the background color, no border is displayed.
16hilited_text_color: 0xfecb96 # Highlighted text, that is, the portion of the input code corresponding to the currently highlighted candidate.
17hilited_back_color: 0x000000 # Sets the background color of the highlighted text to make the highlighted portion stand out.
18hilited_candidate_text_color: 0x60ffa8 # The highlighted candidate text color should be eye-catching!
19hilited_candidate_back_color: 0x000000 # The background color of the highlighted candidate. If it's different from the background color, a highlight bar will appear.

After preparing this file, switch to the input method (in the upper-right corner of the status bar on Ubuntu 22.04), click both the 'Deploy' and 'Synchronize' buttons, then find a place where you can type text and press F4 or Ctrl+` (the key below the esc key to the left of number 1 on your keyboard, probably called the backtick).

The "🍀️ Four-Leaf Clover Pinyin Input Method" option should be in the list of options. Select it and try it out.

The final result, while not customizable, is a bit plain, but simplicity is good.

Lastmod： Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Copyright statement:

All content that is not sourced is original., please do not reprint without authorization (because the typesetting is often disordered after reprinting, the content is uncontrollable, and cannot be continuously updated, etc.);
For non-profit purposes, to deduce any content of this blog, please give the relevant webpage address of this site in the form of 'source of original text' or 'reference link' (for the convenience of readers).

Rime Input Method Engine and Clover Input Scheme

Copyright statement:

See Also:

Translations: