How to Install Avro Phonetic Keyboard or ibus-avro in Debian, Kali, LMDE (Mint) Linux

ibus-avro

Avro Phonetic Bangla typing for Linux

ibus-avro is the port of popular Avro Phonetic Bangla typing method to Linux. This software works as an Engine (plugin) of IBus and let users type in English and on-the-fly transliterate them phonetically to Bangla.

Notable features of Avro Keyboard and Bangla Spell Checker:

1. Fully Unicode Compliant


2. Efficient & Customizable


3. Built-in Bangla Spell Checker


4. Phonetic, Touch & Mouse based typing


5. 100% compatibility with the current Avro Phonetic scheme.


6. Support for preview window to see originally typed text right under the cursor.


7. Dictionary support can predict and suggest phonetically similar words with correct spelling on the fly.


8. Autocorrect support brings commonly used English words to Bangla (like, Facebook, download etc.) even with their original English spelling.


9. Customizable.

LMDE, Kali, Debian Installation Issue:

Usual installation or README file dictates that you install the following Standard packages (tested for Ubuntu 12.04)

apt-get install git libibus-1.0-0 libibus-1.0-dev ibus automake autoconf gjs gir1.2-gjsdbus-1.0 gir1.2-ibus-1.0

For other linux distributions all it says that
“You’ll need all related build tools like automake, autoconf etc… and Latest IBus from git compiled with gobject-introspection support enabled.”

Problem is, some packages are not available in Debian, Kali, LMDE, Mint or got a different name. I’ve searched and tried enough method and came up with the best solution. So, here is the tutorial on

How to Install Avro Phonetic Keyboard in Debian or Kali Linux:

Install Standard packages: (removed gir1.2-gjsdbus-1.0 and added ibus-1.0)

apt-get install git ibus libibus-1.0-dev automake autoconf gjs gir1.2-ibus-1.0 ibus-1.0

Clone git packages and install it:

git clone git://github.com/sarim/ibus-avro.git
cd ibus-avro
aclocal && autoconf && automake --add-missing
./configure --prefix=/usr
make install

P.S. Chowmein is not avail in my source list, but then again I try to avoid too many package installation at anytime to keep things simpler.

Usage

1. Run IBus (Applications -> System Tools -> IBus) from Dash


2. Open IBus Preferences from the top panel icon


3. Go to Input method


4. Select an input method -> Bengali -> Avro (ibus-avro)


5. Now Click Add button to add Avro to the list (ibus-avro)


6. Now restart IBus from the top panel icon (Right Click -> Restart)


7. Now Press Ctrl+Space to toggle between English and Avro (Bengali)

Enjoy Avro Phonetic!

Hope that helps someone out there.

End of How to Install Avro Phonetic Keyboard or ibus-avro in Debian, Kali, LMDE, Mint, Linux.

Done.