Adding Sinhala (සිංහල) to GNU/Linux (ලිනක්ස්)

3.1.1. What is available?

• LKLUG Unicode Sinhala font

• SCIM transliterated input method

  • Automatically sets the required environment variables in /etc/environment

3.1.2. How to install

1. Add to /etc/apt/sources.list

   1. On Debian 4.0 (Etch)

      deb http://sinhala.sourceforge.net/debian/i386/etch/ ./

   2. On Debian testing (Lenny)

      deb http://sinhala.sourceforge.net/debian/i386/lenny/ ./

   3. On Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) i386

      deb http://sinhala.sourceforge.net/ubuntu/i386/hardy/ ./

2. Update repository metadata:

   apt-get update

3. Install Sinhala packages:

   apt-get install sinhala-gnu-linux

4. Upgrade relevant packages:

   apt-get upgrade

5. Logout and login again. Environment variables need to be set/updated (NO NEED TO REBOOT)

3.1.3. How to test

1. Visit http://si.wikipedia.org/ and see if the Sinhala letters render correctly.

2. Copy and paste some of the content from Sinhala wikipedia to Open Office Writer. Then highlight the Sinhala text and choose the LKLUG font to display them.

3. To test SCIM, press Control-space whilst you are running a GNOME application. Then select one of the Sinhala input methods.