Removing mozc-utils-gui from 19.04

mozc-utils-gui is now the last thing keeping Qt in Ubuntu main. It would make things easier for both the Canonical Security Team and the community Qt/Kubuntu/Lubuntu maintainers if Qt could be demoted to universe.

mozc-utils-gui provides extra configuration options for the Japanese mozc input method released by Google.

Ideally, someone would port the utility over to a more native implementation in GNOME.

But even if no one does that work, I am proposing that we drop mozc-utils-gui from main starting in Ubuntu 19.04. This would mean that it would longer be available by default in the live ISO and it would (probably) not be automatically installed for Japanese users. I expect we would still keep ibus-mozc in the live ISO and part of the default Japanese install.

mozc-utils-gui is not essential, but required by Japanese users.

I (as Japanese user), reluctantly agree with removing mozc-utils-gui from live session, but I hope that mozc-utils-gui is installed on non-live session by default. Is there any method we can install packages in universe at post-install on specific language environment?

By the way, mozc-utils-gui provides a executable mozc_tool. This file name is tightly coupled with source code of mozc-server. Ie. if anyone will port the utility, its package needs to use alternatives system or modify mozc-server source package.

Hey there,

Ccing, @gunnarhj do you have an opinion on that? Also can we have optional language supports including packages from universe?

One question from a im/japanese newbie, but mozjs-utils-gui is only a configuration UI right? Can japanese be typed without having to configure it first? If so that’s probably good enough for the live session/default installation…

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This is a related email thread:

It’s my understanding that @mitsuya confirmed that mozc-utils-gui is dispensable in the live session.

AFAIK we could let pkg_depends pull mozc-utils-gui for Japanese even if it’s moved to universe. But since it’s not in the seed, the installer would ignore it in that case, right? That is in case of a Japanese install, the user would have to open Language Support at first login to be prompted to install it (or install it manually some other way).

One question is if we could have it installed behind the scenes for Japanese users.

Also, for this to work, I suppose that ibus-mozc must be changed to no longer recommend mozc-utils-gui.

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Can japanese be typed without having to configure it first?

Yes, disco live image has already removed mozc-utils-gui,
but I can type Japanese without mozc-utils-gui.

  1. Boot live session
  2. Move to System Settins → Region & Language
  3. Add “Japanese (Mozc)” on “Input Source”
  4. Start up gedit, and focus text region
  5. Type super + space to change input source (input indicator to “A”)
  6. On indicator, select input mode to “Hiragana”
  7. Input Japanese :beer:

mozc support in the default ISO

Hmm, I have no recollection about this mail.
It seems that I need to exec Memtest86+ for my brain.

AFAIK we could let pkg_depends pull mozc-utils-gui for Japanese even if it’s moved to universe.
But since it’s not in the seed, the installer would ignore it in that case, right?

I tried disco installer and finished without error.
Sure, mozc-utils-gui isn’t in pkg_depends yet and remain in main,
but mozc-utils-gui is not installed, ibus-mozc is installed.
Perhaps ubiquity doesn’t install recommended package?

I filed ticket about this.

I think ubiquity installs recommended packages which are in main. But mozc-utils-gui seems to have been moved to universe already:

$ rmadison mozc-utils-gui | grep -E 'cosmic|disco'
 mozc-utils-gui | 2.23.2815.102+dfsg-2                      | cosmic                   | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386
 mozc-utils-gui | 2.23.2815.102+dfsg-2                      | disco/universe           | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386
 mozc-utils-gui | 2.23.2815.102+dfsg-2build1                | disco-proposed/universe  | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386

That ought to be the reason why it wasn’t installed for you, not the fact that it’s not yet in pkg_depends.

So if nobody objects, I can fix your bug, i.e. adding mozc-utils-gui to pkg_depends. But I don’t think that will make ubiquity install it. It will make Language Support pull it though.

Done.

@mitsuya: This is not an ideal setup. Is mozc still the best choice for inputting Japanese?

The mozc source got changed as well now to lower the Recommends on mozc-utils-gui to a Suggests