Can't enter Umlaut/accented characters

[okko7]

Download and install a software via Flatpak.
Software works, but can't enter special character.

Launching the software from the command line, I receive the following error message:
`** (org.inkscape.Inkscape:2): WARNING **: 21:33:25.783: Error converting text from IM to UTF-8: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input
``
The issue doesn't occur if I run the same piece of software from an AppImage.

Example described in details here based on Inkscape, but could reproduce it with Melt :
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/2735#note_378602787

System: Linux Mint 19.3, Mate 1.22.2.

[matze]

Cannot reproduce this. Which version are you using and how exactly do you "enter the special character"?

[okko7]

Flatpak 1.0.9-ubuntu0.1.

I'm using a Swiss-French or Swiss-German keyboard. The character are entered directly from that keyboard.

[matze]

1. Are you absolutely sure you run a Flatpak? That version number makes no sense. Use flatpak info org.inkscape.Inkscape for the version info and flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape to run it.
2. I was actually asking where you entered characters. In a text box or some dialog or some control?

[okko7]

You may have realised that I'm not at all a developer (and as a linux mint user even less familiar with Flatpak) ;-) But to answer your questions:

1: Flatpak:
Ref: app/org.inkscape.Inkscape/x86_64/stable ID: org.inkscape.Inkscape Arch: x86_64 Branch: stable Origin: flathub Collection ID: org.flathub.Stable Date: 2020-06-24 22:00:07 +0000 Subject: Issue #11 - Make ICC profiles availble. (130edb6a) Commit: e60b4b9cc77bd6be468b80dfbf700dd4dcf6519389533d35dbbdbbc87c829e67 Parent: 90ed46765f25f7ca2427dbe3f46ba34646d84520f056a9719521a593c21bfda9 Location: /home/simon/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.inkscape.Inkscape/x86_64/stable/e60b4b9cc77bd6be468b80dfbf700dd4dcf6519389533d35dbbdbbc87c829e67 Installed size: 231,9 MB Runtime: org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/3.36 Sdk: org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/3.36
2:
In inkscape, create a text frame within a drawing. But it also happens in dialogue boxes (e.g. to create a new layer). In Melt it happens when editing a text file.

[matze]

Hmm reading that ticket … can you try flatpak install flathub org.inkscape.Inkscape.Locale? And how exactly did you install the Flatpak in the first place? Usually, the locale data is installed automatically.

[okko7]

I have to admit that I don't remember anymore how I installed Flatpak. Just followed some online tutorial.

~$ flatpak install flathub org.inkscape.Inkscape.Locale
Remote ‘flathub’ found in multiple installations:

1. system
2. user
   Which do you want to use (0 to abort)? [0-2]: 1
   Skipping: org.inkscape.Inkscape.Locale/x86_64/stable is already installed

[nathanal]

I'm not sure if behavior will be different if you have a non-english Locale, but installing inkscape via flatpak did not install the French locale for me (requiring me to install it manually). Yes, installing inkscape did install both org.inkscape.Inkscape and org.inkscape.Inkscape.Locale though.

Anyway, coming back to this issue, could you also test with https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.wereturtle.ghostwriter or other QT apps, to see if this is a general issue with flatpaks problem (my last comment on the gitlab issue)?

[hfiguiere]

@okko7
In the terminal, it would be helpfull to have the output of the following:

locale

and then:

flatapk run --command=sh org.inkscape.Inkscape//stable
locale

(this will enter the Inkscape Flatpak sandbox, and locale will list the locale inside)

You can just type exit to exit the Flatpak sandbox.

This will help checking if the locale is inconsistent between the host and inside Flatpak.

Thanks.

[okko7]

~$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fr_CH.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

~$ flatpak run --command=sh org.inkscape.Inkscape//stablesh-5.0$ locale
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fr_CH.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ALL=
sh-5.0$

[hfiguiere]

This message inside the sandbox:

locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

is probably why the problem is occurring. But we need to figure out why in order to solve it.