But when I start to type, the window for charactor choices just does not show up.

I believe this is Budgie-related. It works well in the MATE edition. Could you check if we are talking about the same thing? @LER0ever
See: https://github.com/budgie-desktop/budgie-desktop/issues/729

I believe this is Budgie-related. It works well in the MATE edition. Could you check if we are talking about the same thing? @LER0ever
See: https://github.com/budgie-desktop/budgie-desktop/issues/729

@baimafeima Yes! That's exactly what I'm talking about. Except that my ibus tray icon does not appear either way.

got the same problem as OP in Mate version (Linux solus 4.9.6 #1 SMP Sun Jan 29 01:32:07 UTC 2017 x86_64 GNU/Linux). Up to date system, ibus 1.5.14, ibus-libpinyin 1.8.1 Currently trying to enable ibus by adding the following strings to /etc/profile
export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
ibus-daemon -drx

As a result, ibus does start, it lets me change between engish and russian, but doesn't let me type in chinese (input choice windows not showing up). Will be more then happy to provide some further info and testing.
thanks!

In T2048#35876, @baimafeima wrote:

It works well in the MATE edition.

@baimafeima Could you kindly tell how you made it work?

@i42870 It worked OOTB when I used Solus MATE some time ago. I will check again after I've updated.

@baimafeima much appreciated!

@i42870
I cannot reproduce. While Ibus is not working flawlessly in MATE (I get strange visual artefacts after hitting the space key, but this is another issue), the input window is indeed showing up. Left click on the Chinese character when you have libpinyin activated and make sure the top entry of the menu shows Chinese.

@baimafeima hm... i dont know... i give up). It never worked for me, even after todays fresh reinstall...
thanks a ton for your time!

@i42870 Just to be sure, it only works in Solus MATE. It currently doesn't work in Solus Budgie. When you go to the Control Center in Solus MATE and click on IBus Preferences > Yes, nothing shows up?

@baimafeima it loads, it shows symbols for english, russian and pinyin (en, ru, 拼) in the tray, but it never gives me that window showing appropriate words for your pinyin. Neither automatically after the install, nor after adding those export gtk_im_module lines to any of the places i could possibly think of, not even after launching, lets say firefox, from the terminal with that GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus option. I very much believe in the end it's something i'm not doing right, i'm just out of ideas :)
And yes, it is Mate edition, i did come across this thread before choosing between the two :)

Any updates on this front? Let's see if there is any improvement when the latest libpinyin and ibus-libpinyin land.

@i42870 Did you install Solus Budgie and then added the MATE desktop or did you use the separate MATE edition ISO from the download page?

@baimafeima thanks for bringing this topic up again :)
It was a separate MATE edition iso

after installed lasted upgrade (march 3rd), mate version can type in editor now. Budgie version still not work. (nothing shows up).

maybe is time to reconsider fcitx?

No we just need to fix it in Budgie.