I don’t think I’ve seen a single distro that ships Korean support right off the bat, except HarmoniKR. Because of the way Korean works, it’s not just the keyboard layout support you need. To list the things you need to do:

• Install Fcitx5.
• Install Korean Fcitx5 input method. Probably named something like fcitx-hangul. Without it, Hangul keyboard will not appear in Fcitx.
• Check what 한/영 key really does. This is necessary because depending on the hardware, it either emits Hangul key, or Right Alt. If it emits Hangul, then you can skip this. If not, make sure you remap Right Alt to Hangul, because then the key triggers Alt action every time language is swapped. Those usually steal input, so it is really annoying.
• Add both Hangul keyboard (not Korean) and English keyboard in Fcitx5 config. Korean keyboard does not enter Korean characters. It’s the Hangul keyboard that actually enters Korean characters. It probably corresponds to Korean keyboard’s English input. It should look something like this.
• Add Hangul key as Enumerate Input Method Forward option in Fcitx config under Global Options tab.

I will attach my files in ~/.config/fcitx5. These two should go under that directory, and not ~/.config/fcitx.

[Hotkey]
# Trigger Input Method
TriggerKeys=
# Enumerate when press trigger key repeatedly
EnumerateWithTriggerKeys=True
# Temporally switch between first and current Input Method
AltTriggerKeys=
# Enumerate Input Method Backward
EnumerateBackwardKeys=
# Skip first input method while enumerating
EnumerateSkipFirst=False
# Enumerate Input Method Group Backward
EnumerateGroupBackwardKeys=
# Time limit in milliseconds for triggering modifier key shortcuts
ModifierOnlyKeyTimeout=250

[Hotkey/EnumerateForwardKeys]
0=Hangul

[Hotkey/EnumerateGroupForwardKeys]
0=Control+Alt+Hangul

[Hotkey/ActivateKeys]
0=Hangul_Hanja

[Hotkey/DeactivateKeys]
0=Hangul_Romaja

[Hotkey/PrevPage]
0=Up

[Hotkey/NextPage]
0=Down

[Hotkey/PrevCandidate]
0=Shift+Tab

[Hotkey/NextCandidate]
0=Tab

[Hotkey/TogglePreedit]
0=Control+Alt+P

[Behavior]
# Active By Default
ActiveByDefault=False
# Reset state on Focus In
resetStateWhenFocusIn=No
# Share Input State
ShareInputState=No
# Show preedit in application
PreeditEnabledByDefault=True
# Show Input Method Information when switch input method
ShowInputMethodInformation=True
# Show Input Method Information when changing focus
showInputMethodInformationWhenFocusIn=True
# Show compact input method information
CompactInputMethodInformation=True
# Show first input method information
ShowFirstInputMethodInformation=True
# Default page size
DefaultPageSize=5
# Override Xkb Option
OverrideXkbOption=False
# Custom Xkb Option
CustomXkbOption=
# Force Enabled Addons
EnabledAddons=
# Force Disabled Addons
DisabledAddons=
# Preload input method to be used by default
PreloadInputMethod=True
# Allow input method in the password field
AllowInputMethodForPassword=False
# Show preedit text when typing password
ShowPreeditForPassword=False
# Interval of saving user data in minutes
AutoSavePeriod=30

[Groups/0]
# Group Name
Name=日本語
# Layout
Default Layout=us
# Default Input Method
DefaultIM=mozc

[Groups/0/Items/0]
# Name
Name=keyboard-us
# Layout
Layout=

[Groups/0/Items/1]
# Name
Name=mozc
# Layout
Layout=

[Groups/1]
# Group Name
Name=한국어
# Layout
Default Layout=us
# Default Input Method
DefaultIM=hangul

[Groups/1/Items/0]
# Name
Name=keyboard-us
# Layout
Layout=

[Groups/1/Items/1]
# Name
Name=hangul
# Layout
Layout=

[GroupOrder]
0=한국어
1=日本語

I’ve tried two different setups for Hangul input.

The first combination (GNOME+X11+IBus) just worked—it was trivial to setup from the GNOME Control Center and there were no issues that I could find. Last time I tried this was around a year ago but it had been working for years before that.

The second combination (Plasma+Wayland+IBus) barely worked: I could enter characters but couldn’t add space or other symbols between characters, and settings were all over the place and would randomly stop working. Last tested ten minutes ago.

I’ve heard people getting better results on Plasma+Wayland+Fcitx5 but it’s not something I’ve tried.

​All Korean keyboards, including the one on my LG Gram (which is a Korean model), have a dedicated key for switching between English and Korean (the “한영키”). Everyone who isn’t technically inclined uses this key. Using Ctrl + Space is a bad user experience.

Annyeong haseyo!

Can’t go wrong with Debian.

Just a heads up, I havent looked into it for a year, but back then CJK input was completely non functional on wayland.

Ok apparently there has been progress.

https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6533-status-of-cjk-input-system-in-wayland/

At the beginning of this year it was working, even if a bit buggy, according to this talk. The talk also provides a good overview of all the subsystems involved.

Re: cinnamon: This guy has some videos on how to set up multiple keyboards and set a shortcut to change between them.

Can’t speak to hamonikr.

Adding new keyboard languages https://youtu.be/jbKVfZ6M0c8?t=46s

Setting keyboard language change shortcut https://youtu.be/omdUhZ489PE?t=27s

Best of luck and remember that there’s always a learning curve with these things

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I think KDE Plasma supports just about every keyboard layout in existence. It even supports the Esperanto layout, which I have never seen before. Pick a distro with Plasma and choose the right layout during setup.

Red star OS is best OS for democratic peoples Republic of Korea!

By the way your next generation is going to be 34% the size of your current one. You guys got to take some time off work.

안녕하세요!

i personally use slackware, nabi for xim imhangul-gtk2/3 for gtk and qimhangul-qt5 (peremen) for qt. meaning i don’t have korean input for qt6 or gtk4.

ibus kinda seemed to work but had numerous glitches, same for fcitx but worse, uim made gtk2/3 programs hang. i’m honestly not sure how other korean users are doing it. i’ve heard good stuff about harmonikr, but not entirely sure how it’s much different from debian ubuntu etc.

also ensure xkeyboard layout is korean and the Hangul key doesn’t identify as Alt_R in xev, some IMs don’t like it.

Now, Mint should support the need decently enough, although it takes some setup. You can look up for language setup settings, I found that fctix works well nowadays.

That depends on your preferences

https://slrpnk.net/post/21305064

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Red star os/s