Malayalam Phonetic Typing aka Transliteration in Arch Linux

1. Install iBus and related libraries

yay -S ibus ibus-m17n m17n-db

2. Download Swanalekha inpput method lib and copy to to /usr/share/m17n/

wget http://swanalekha.smc.org.in/m17n/ml-swanalekha.mim
sudo cp ml-swanalekha.mim /usr/share/m17n/ml-swanalekha.mim

3. Start ibus daemon

ibus-daemon -drxR

4. Open ibus preferences

ibus-setup

5. Switch to Input Method Tab, Click Add and search for Malayalam - ml-swanalekha and add it. If needed, change hotkey for switching input methods.
6. Restart ibus daemon

ibus-daemon -rdx

Also ensure that you have some malayalam fonts installed in your system. Fonts are available from:

• Google Fonts
• Swathanthra Malayalam Computing