#372 A Chinese character is not entered in the text box

When I typed Chinese characters in the chat box, all the characters I typed were question marks "?"

I'm using Steam Deck, in game mode, GE-Proton42, Proton 7.0-5.

https://notabug.org/Krock/dawn/src/master/TROUBLESHOOTING.md#locale-specific-keyboard-layout-not-working

@ArlongLi The troubleshooting lacked the mention of locale -a which I now added. Did this solve your issue? If not, what did you try so far?

I tried to add "LANG=zh_CN.utf8 %command%" to the startup option, but it stopped the game from starting. In SteamDeck game mode, after clicking to start the game, it stayed in the logo interface.

In most Chinese distribution, the $LANG variable appears to be "zh_CN.UTF-8" instead of "zh_CN.utf8". You can have a try.

You can also check out the Chinese Arch Wiki:https://wiki.archlinuxcn.org/wiki/%E5%AE%89%E8%A3%85%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97#%E6%9C%AC%E5%9C%B0%E5%8C%96

@ArlongLi Did you find a solution?

Please let me know about workarounds that I could then document properly.

Afaik, this is not exclusive to GI. It happens in so many of titles. I tried Roblox once and it cannot type anything but English. There's not much you can do to address the issue, besides of copying text from outside, then paste it in-game, which works totally fine.

@jajedi If you would like to test the workarounds, check out TROUBLESHOOTING.md (environment variables and gnome keyboard settings). It would be good to have a definitive solution for these problems because the copy&paste solution is hardly convenient.

For en_US.utf8, all Chinese characters will become ??? because of the wrong locale, using zh_CN.utf8 can resolve the problem.

However, the zh_CN.utf8 is not built in steamOS by default, I have a script to enable the Chinese and Japnese locale. (You need to provide the root password for the script)

Step by step:

1. Create a sudo password if you don't have one
2. Open a terminal, run wget https://file.bluefissure.com/SteamDick/CJ_locale_enabler.sh and then bash CJ_locale_enabler.sh
3. Restart steamOS if necessary
4. Follow instructions at Game crashes on launch -- For Steam, remember to use zh_CN.utf8 instead of en_US.utf8.

BTW the LC_CTYPE is not necessary if LC_ALL is set.

Thank you @Bluefissure. Before I commit the script you provided and updated instructions, I would like to know the following:

1. Is the exec workaround from #358 needed? The start options should already set the locale correctly.
2. What is the reason behind the package source update (pacman-key) and the line pacman -S glibc ?

Hi @Krock,

1. Last time (~4 months ago) when I tried to solve the problem that CN client crashes on launch only in steam, it was necessary to set the locale both in the steam-runtime script and the start option. The steam-runtime script is used when executing a third-party game/software from steam, as noted in the source code. I'm not sure whether it can handle the locale setting in start option well now, I can double-check after getting home and reply to you later.
2. The pacman commands are used to install the glibc, I'm not sure whether it's mandatory to install glibc for locale-gen in steamdeck since many dev dependencies are peeled off from steamOS. The script comes from reddit and I only added Chinese locale to it.

BTW I suggest holding the instructions update for a little while since I modified my steamOS a lot, it's better to make sure the instructions can accurately solve the typing/encoding problem by asking @ArlongLi or anyone else to double check.

@Krock There's no need to set the locale for the steam-runtime script now, I think the latest steamOS has fixed the locale setting in the start option for 3rd party apps.

Setting the locale in the start option is still necessary, otherwise the CN client crashes as usual.

@Bluefissure I still haven't found the right way. I don't want to use the root command to change the system because I have to reset it after the system is updated. With the latest SteamOS3.4.6 and Proton51, typing zh_CN.UTF8 at startup still doesn't work.

@ArlongLi I don't understand why you want to reset it after the system update.

Did you enable the zh_CN.UTF8 in your locale before adding it?

No reply in over two months. I assume the issue is solved or obsolete.

If there is an issue with the documentation please let me know how to improve it.