Typing composite characters (e.g. diacritics) in emacs

Question

When running GNU Emacs as a GUI (under Ubuntu), I can't type composite characters with a Spanish keyboard.

For example, to type character á in a Spanish keyboard you first type the ´ key followed by the a key.

So when I fire up Emacs, these kind of key sequences don't work; the diacritic is ignored. That is until I use the Ctrl+x 8 Enter Enter (C-x 8 RET RET). After that, typing works as expected.

How could I automate this from init.el?

Answer 1

This is a Dead Keys problem, and it's mentioned in the Emacs wiki.

All the workarounds explained there solve the issue.