From ab6b76c8ed16b543358dd02517eaf4a893d012fb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Neil <4138956+nwparker@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2026 20:11:18 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] test(e2e): select the IBus engine by read-back, not exit
 status

Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
---
 .../scripts/run-terminal-ibus-engine-e2e.mjs  | 21 ++++++++++++++++---
 tests/e2e/terminal-ibus-engine-native.spec.ts | 13 ++++++++----
 2 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/config/scripts/run-terminal-ibus-engine-e2e.mjs b/config/scripts/run-terminal-ibus-engine-e2e.mjs
index 11d8a7b69c0..7f0eba0df1a 100644
--- a/config/scripts/run-terminal-ibus-engine-e2e.mjs
+++ b/config/scripts/run-terminal-ibus-engine-e2e.mjs
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ function configureEngine(profile) {
 async function waitForEngine(ibusProcess, profile) {
   const deadline = Date.now() + 15_000
   let lastFailure = ''
+  let attempts = 0
   while (Date.now() < deadline) {
     if (ibusProcess.exitCode !== null) {
       throw new Error(`ibus-daemon exited early with code ${ibusProcess.exitCode}`)
@@ -118,18 +119,32 @@ async function waitForEngine(ibusProcess, profile) {
       encoding: 'utf8',
       stdio: 'pipe'
     })
-    if (result.status === 0) {
+    // Why: the selection lands over D-Bus first and only then runs setxkbmap, which
+    // exits non-zero — silently — for any engine declaring no XKB layout of its own.
+    // Read the engine back instead of trusting the status.
+    const active = spawnSync('ibus', ['engine'], { encoding: 'utf8', stdio: 'pipe' })
+    if (active.status === 0 && active.stdout.trim() === profile.ibusEngineName) {
       return
     }
-    lastFailure = (result.stderr || result.stdout || '').trim()
+    attempts += 1
+    lastFailure = [
+      `status=${result.status} signal=${result.signal ?? 'none'}`,
+      result.error ? `error=${result.error.message}` : '',
+      result.stderr?.trim() ? `stderr=${result.stderr.trim()}` : '',
+      result.stdout?.trim() ? `stdout=${result.stdout.trim()}` : '',
+      `active=${active.stdout?.trim() || '(none)'}`
+    ]
+      .filter(Boolean)
+      .join(' | ')
     await delay(100)
   }
   // Why: the engine name a package registers is not always its apt suffix, so the
   // available list is the only thing that tells you which of the two is wrong.
   const available = commandOutput('ibus', ['list-engine'])
   throw new Error(
-    `Timed out while selecting the IBus ${profile.ibusEngineName} engine.\n` +
+    `Timed out while selecting the IBus ${profile.ibusEngineName} engine after ${attempts} attempts.\n` +
       `Last 'ibus engine' failure: ${lastFailure || '(no output)'}\n` +
+      `Engine ibus reports as current: ${commandOutput('ibus', ['engine'])}\n` +
       `Engines ibus reports as available:\n${available}`
   )
 }
diff --git a/tests/e2e/terminal-ibus-engine-native.spec.ts b/tests/e2e/terminal-ibus-engine-native.spec.ts
index 033e1bb8753..c52a16a242c 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/terminal-ibus-engine-native.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e/terminal-ibus-engine-native.spec.ts
@@ -85,10 +85,15 @@ async function focusNativeTerminalWindow(
   await expect.poll(() => page.title(), { timeout: 5_000 }).toBe(title)
 
   runXdotool('search', '--onlyvisible', '--name', title, 'windowfocus', '--sync')
-  execFileSync('ibus', ['engine', engine.ibusEngineName], {
-    stdio: 'pipe',
-    timeout: NATIVE_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS
-  })
+  try {
+    execFileSync('ibus', ['engine', engine.ibusEngineName], {
+      stdio: 'pipe',
+      timeout: NATIVE_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS
+    })
+  } catch {
+    // Why: selection succeeds over D-Bus before the non-zero exit an engine with no
+    // XKB layout of its own produces; the read-back below is the real assertion.
+  }
   const active = execFileSync('ibus', ['engine'], {
     encoding: 'utf8',
     timeout: NATIVE_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS