Keyboard Input Methods don’t work on Linux applications of Onlyoffice

Recently, I bought a new Chromebook( Acer Chromebook 314 CB314-1HT). Because I am a Vietnamese, I changed the Input Methods to Vietnamese( Telex) and Vietnamese(VNI). The ones work really great on Chrome browser, Playstore applications and in File Manger. However, when I installed Linux application of Onlyoffice including both Flatpak and Debian, I cannot type any Vietnamese characters even though I had changed the input method from the US( default) to Vietnamese (Telex or VNI). I also tried some other languages like French, German but it didn’t work too. It is likely that the Input Methods only supports English(USA)-the default input method on any Chromebook.

Hey @annavan :wave:

To assist you as thoroughly as possible, it would be very helpful if you could provide a detailed video recording showing the exact steps you follow when encountering the issue. Specifically, we’d appreciate it if you could include:

  1. The moment when you switch input methods on your Chromebook.
  2. How you attempt to type in Vietnamese (Telex or VNI) or any other language within the OnlyOffice app.
  3. Any specific settings or adjustments you’ve made within the Linux environment on your Chromebook.

The more detailed information you can provide, the better we’ll be able to replicate the issue and find a solution. Thank you for your help, and we look forward to your response!

Thank you for your response! In Chromebook, switching to another Input Methods is not currently supported by default. As a result, I have to change the default Input Methods from “English(us)” to Vietnamese(telex) before opening any Linux apps. In the video, you can see that I have tried to type some letters in Vietnamese by pressing the keyboard on my Chromebook such as “aa” stand for"â", dd stand for “đ”, “oo” stand for “ô”, “w” for “ư”, “ee” stand for “ê”. However, none of them worked as expected. I also tried it on another app(libreoffice writer) and it worked really well. I both installed these apps by DEB files. I also noticed that I needed to install another package of libreoffice(sudo apt install -y libreoffice libreoffice-gtk3) to make libreoffice have the ability to type Vietnamese letters with the US keyboard because if I only installed the default command(sudo apt install libreoffice), it didn’t work like Onlyoffice.
I included the video below! If you need any information, please let me know.
Thank you for your help

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Hey @annavan
Thank you very much for the detailed description and the video! :hugs:

We’ll need a bit of time to investigate this issue further, and as soon as we have any additional information regarding the bug, I’ll be sure to update you! :handshake:

Hey @annavan :upside_down_face:

Thank you again for reporting the issue and for providing such a detailed description, as well as the video demonstration. :hugs:

We wanted to ask a couple of follow-up questions to better understand your setup. Could you please clarify how you installed the ONLYOFFICE desktop application on your Chromebook? Did you encounter any specific dependencies or additional steps during the installation? This information would help us investigate further.

Additionally, we noticed that input methods work correctly in our web version of ONLYOFFICE. Given that Chromebooks are optimized for web applications, we were wondering if you’ve considered using the web version of ONLYOFFICE. It might provide a smoother experience with input methods, as we’ve seen positive results with Vietnamese characters in the browser.

Thank you for your reply,

Firstly, I installed ONLYOFFICE desktop application on my device by following this Youtube video (link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjoi-vFcqAg) by enabling the Linux container and some commands in the Linux terminal like the video:

  1. sudo apt update
  2. sudo apt install libnss3
  3. wget https://download.onlyoffice.com/install/desktop/editors/linux/onlyoffice-desktopeditors_amd64.deb
  4. sudo dpkg -i onlyoffice-desktopeditors_amd64.deb
  5. sudo apt -f install

From my own experience, I can installed ONLYOFFICE desktop application with the second command which is a must-step and the DEB file that had been downloaded from your website. All I need to do is click on the DEB file and it will automatically install with the Linux terminal. Other commands are optional as they can help users to download and install ONLYOFFICE automatically. The second command is required to be installed before you install ONLYOFFICE either with the downloaded DEB file or using other commands. If you don’t use the second command before installing ONLYOFFICE, you will get an error about incompatible dependencies.

For your second question, I totally agree that input methods work perfectly within the Chrome browser and other places like Files, Playstore and the issues seemed to only occur on Linux apps. I asked some people who are good at Linux and Chromebooks, they told me that Chromebook only supports GTK-based applications at the moment like Libreoffice; any other ones using non-GTK-based including Ftatpak don’t support input methods inside the Linux container.

in addition, using the web version of ONLYOFFICE is really great because it has full features like the desktop application. However, it will be difficult if I work with large files as the maximum file size is only 25MB and the online version always requires an internet connection. I would like to use the offline version as it allows to me to work effectively no matter how good or bad the internet connection is.

@annavan :hugs:

Thank you for your detailed feedback and the explanation of how you installed ONLYOFFICE on your Chromebook!

Regarding the issue with input methods in Linux apps, We continue to improve ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors for Linux environments.

We appreciate your preference for the desktop version due to its offline capabilities and understand the constraints posed by the file size limit and the need for an internet connection in the web version. We are continually working on enhancing the performance and features of ONLYOFFICE across all platforms, and your detailed input is invaluable in this process. :slight_smile:

Thank you once again for using ONLYOFFICE and for your detailed insights. :handshake:

I hope that future versions of ONLYOFFICE will support input methods within the Linux container on Chromebook devices.

Thank you once again for supporting me.

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Could you tell me if the web version of ONLYOFFICE has all the same features as ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, please? I decided to use the web version as you suggested while keeping an eye on the new release version ofONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors which will support Keyboard Input Methods.

@annavan :upside_down_face:

In short, yes, the web version of ONLYOFFICE has all the same features as the desktop editors.

However, if you’re looking for specific features, could you let me know which ones are most important to you?
That way, I can provide a more detailed comparison or explanation based on your needs.

Hello Nicolas,

Because I work as an accountant, the most important feature for me is the Pivot Table to help me manage the data at my company.

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Hi @annavan :vulcan_salute:

Of course, the Pivot Table functionality is available in the web version of ONLYOFFICE. You can learn more about it through the following links:

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!

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Hello, the same issue as described and seen is happening in my hp laptop, on arch linux Arch 66.59-1-lts. Hope a solution will be found, onlyoffice is really a good MS Office replacer for linux users. Thx !

Hey @fbn2377 :saluting_face:

Thank you for reporting the issue with input methods on Linux apps of ONLYOFFICE on Chromebook.
Our team is already looking into resolving this problem. Could you confirm if you were also using Vietnamese input?

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a specific timeline for the resolution at this moment, but rest assured that we will notify you as soon as more information becomes available.

If you have any more questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out. We are always here to help! :slight_smile:

I also have the same issue with Chrome input methods on ONLYOFFICE in Linux Terminal on my Google Pixel book Go. I can easily type any word in English, but no success with Vietnamese characters. On the other hand, the online version of ONLYOFFICE works smoothly and effectively.