Installing Common Software on Ubuntu

Installing GCC 5

The latest release at the time was 5.2. The commands below install GCC and G++ 5.1 with C++11 support:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install g++-5

The gcc and g++ symlinks are not updated automatically. Enter /usr/bin and update them manually:

sudo rm gcc g++
sudo ln -s g++-5 g++
sudo ln -s gcc-5 gcc

Run gcc --version and confirm that it reports version 5.1.

Installing Fcitx

Ubuntu includes the IBus input method by default. Its user experience is not ideal: correcting a typo may require deleting the entire composition, and JetBrains applications such as Android Studio and PyCharm may skip characters or fail to switch to Chinese input.

Fcitx is a convenient input method framework. It supports Pinyin, Wubi, and mixed Wubi-Pinyin input.

Install it with:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fcitx-team/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fcitx

Configure Fcitx as the input method. Newer Ubuntu releases may require im-config instead of im-switch:

im-switch -s fcitx

You can also select Fcitx under System Settings → Language Support. If Language Support is unavailable, install it with:

sudo apt-get install language-selector-gnome

If Wubi or mixed Wubi-Pinyin is missing, install fcitx-table-wubi or fcitx-table-wbpy with apt.

Originally published on SegmentFault.