Fixing Fcitx's Baffling Crashes

Just a few days ago, my fcitx input method started crashing for no apparent reason. Basically, I’d start it up, type a few characters, and it would die.

I dug through the logs and found the problem: it’s related to the fcitx-cloudpinyin module — the “cloud pinyin” thing.

Turns out the crash happens when all of the following are true:

• Cloud Pinyin is enabled
• The Baidu cloud pinyin scheme is selected
• You open the input method and type a few random characters

And then it crashes. The fix is simple enough: just disable cloud input. I noticed switching to Google doesn’t crash either, but Google is unusable in mainland China…

Considering the Fcitx developer keeps vanishing from Twitter and Fcitx5 development has stalled, plus Wayland getting dunked on left and right, I wouldn’t count on the frowny face to fix this. Everyone just disable the module quietly.