How to Install Sinhala Wijesekara keyboard?

I’m a newbie to Zorin. I see there’s only two keyboard layouts in Zorin for Sinhala language. Is there a way to install Wijesekara keyboard ? Because it’s the official layout to type sinhala.
I tried these methodes but didn’t work -

Will this guide help? I am not sure of the answer, either.

1 Like

Thank you so much for the super quick reply. I tried to install iBus. But it gives me “Unable to locate package ibus-m17n” error.

Please download the package from here:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/ibus-m17n/ibus-m17n_1.3.4-5_amd64.deb

It will save to downloads.

Open a terminal and

cd ~/Downloads

sudo dpkg -i ibus-m17n_1.3.4-5_amd64.deb

Let us know how that goes.

Whenever I get a failed to find pacakge error, I often check the website pkgs.org to see if I can just get a Debian package for it. Search at the Upper Right side, then scroll down the results to packages listed under "Ubuntu 18.04" for Zorin 15.3, as Zorin 15 is built off Ubuntu 18.04.

Thank you for the reply,

Selecting previously unselected package ibus-m17n.
(Reading database ... 246925 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack ibus-m17n_1.3.4-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ibus-m17n (1.3.4-5) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ibus-m17n:
ibus-m17n depends on libm17n-0 (>= 1.6.3); however:
Package libm17n-0 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package ibus-m17n (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
ibus-m17n

It gives me the above error :frowning:

That dependency would be this one:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/m/m17n-lib/libm17n-0_1.7.0-3build1_amd64.deb

Do the same as above with

cd ~/Downloads

sudo dpkg -i libm17n-0_1.7.0-3build1_amd64.deb

and if the package installs, then enter

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Hey again,
I tried it. and It gives me another error like the above one :

Selecting previously unselected package libm17n-0:amd64.
(Reading database ... 246938 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack libm17n-0_1.7.0-3build1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libm17n-0:amd64 (1.7.0-3build1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libm17n-0:amd64:
libm17n-0:amd64 depends on libotf0 (>= 0.9.11); however:
Package libotf0 is not installed.
libm17n-0:amd64 depends on m17n-db (>= 1.6.0); however:
Package m17n-db is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package libm17n-0:amd64 (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.28-0ubuntu1+zorin4) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
libm17n-0:amd64

Ok, let's try

sudo apt --fix-broken install

first and see what happens- watch the terminal, as its solution may be to just remove what you tried to install instead of installing the dependencies. But it may install the dependencies, then install that package we started with.

I did the

and tried to install

sudo dpkg -i libm17n-0_1.7.0-3build1_amd64.deb

And again the same error :frowning_face:

Selecting previously unselected package libm17n-0:amd64.
(Reading database ... 246925 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack libm17n-0_1.7.0-3build1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libm17n-0:amd64 (1.7.0-3build1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libm17n-0:amd64:
libm17n-0:amd64 depends on libotf0 (>= 0.9.11); however:
Package libotf0 is not installed.
libm17n-0:amd64 depends on m17n-db (>= 1.6.0); however:
Package m17n-db is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package libm17n-0:amd64 (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.28-0ubuntu1+zorin4) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
libm17n-0:amd64

Ok, I must assume the --fix-broken install command must have just removed the packages, then.

I just tested this on my machine- and it worked:

sudo dpkg -i ibus-m17n_1.3.4-5_amd64.deb

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ibus-m17n:
ibus-m17n depends on libm17n-0 (>= 1.6.3); however:
Package libm17n-0 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package ibus-m17n (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
ibus-m17n

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libm17n-0 libotf0 m17n-db
Suggested packages:
m17n-docs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libm17n-0 libotf0 m17n-db
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 25 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 1,508 kB of archives.
After this operation, 8,723 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Yes It removed. Here it is

sudo apt --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
ibus-m17n
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 193 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 246937 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing ibus-m17n (1.3.4-5) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...

Let's try something different. Let's try Synaptic Package manager.
To install Synaptic:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Once it is installed, open it from your App menu - Under Administration category or just search the menu for it.
You must enter your root password to run it -it will give a pop up prompt for your password.
Open Synaptic and look at the Upper Right - Search button. Click that and then enter
ibus-m17
Into the field. Search and then look at the packages it offers- there really should only be one.
Right click the offered package and select to Install It.
It should give a new pop up offering the Dependencies. Agree to that, then click the APPLY button mid-upper left on the toolbar to install.

I don't know why, but the

gives me another error -

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package synaptic is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'synaptic' has no installation candidate

I know you must be annoyed right now with this. I'm so sorry about that.

My jaw very literally dropped.Never saw that before.

Ok, I think we need to check your sources- which may well be the cause of the trouble.

In your app menu, type in the search bar:
Software and Updates

Open it when it comes up again,
On the first tab, it says "Download from" with a drop down menu.
Set that to Main Server.
Then close that window.
Then open a terminal and

sudo apt update

Then

sudo apt-get install synaptic

1 Like

I don’t know why they have a dedicated server for Sri Lanka if there’s literally nothing on it.! :expressionless:

I changed the server to the Main one and installed Synaptic. Then installed ibus-m17 from it. Now I can see every layout of Sinhala language in the language input setting.

You are a real lifesaver! I don’t know how to thank you for that, but, thank you so much! :heart_eyes:

-chuckle- I don’t know, either.
But this thread did cover a lot of ground that what you may not have known before, you now know. And other readers also know.

  • To be sure set the Main Server if it defaults to your country.
  • About sudo apt --fix-broken install. This command is one to memorize, as it will save a person a headache often.
  • About Synaptic package manager - it is a very powerful utility that can install Kernels and remove them and anything else. It has a lot of features and options that can take months to learn them all.
  • About using pkgs.org to find needed packages and also to find dependencies. Even if not downloading, it is a very handy reference to learn what packages apply to which distros and what they depend on. It’s one site to bookmark for when you need it.
  • Using sudo dpkg -i to install a .deb package from terminal.

If it was Windows, you would have only ONE method of installation and if it gave an error, the error would be some gibberish you could not understand. Here, there are many ways to install something, many ways to resolve. And the terminal tells you what went wrong if something does and what you need to do to fix it. Very different than Windows.
So even though the solution was simple; I would call the thread a success, anyway.

1 Like

Yup! Learned so many things as a newbie to Zorin(Linux too!) Special thanks to you! Never thought I would get super-quick and great support like this in a forum.

Hi, Sorry not in your native language but now would be a good time to download the unofficial manual that I wrote - including changing your source updates to Main Server. :wink: