Desktop image sets LC_TIME based on country, not selected language

[Lars Noodén]

From a duplicate:

TEST CASE:
1. Boot from a desktop ISO
2. In ubiquity-dm, select 'Deutsch' then 'Ubuntu Installieren'
3. Proceed with the rest of installation, keeping the defaults (In my case ubiquity preselects 'Paris' for the timezone and a French keyboard layout)
4. Reboot after installation and login

ACTUAL RESULT:
Most of the desktop is in German but the time indicator is in French

EXPECTED RESULT
Time indicator should be localized

Original report
---------------
The Desktop image allows a language to be chosen for the installation. But when the locale settings for the system are actually set, they are ignored. Perhaps they are taken from the geographic location, but that would be a very wrong guess in countries where there is more than one official language.

Below is the output of "ls" on a system that should have been installed in English:

$ ls -lh
total 16K
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 tammi 1 2013 a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 helmi 2 2013 b
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 maali 3 2013 c
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 huhti 4 00:00 d
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 touko 5 00:00 e
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 kesä 6 00:00 f
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 heinä 7 00:00 g
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 elo 8 00:00 h
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 syys 9 00:00 i
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 loka 10 2013 j
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 marra 11 2013 k
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lars lars 0 joulu 12 2013 l
drwx------ 2 root root 4,0K syys 26 12:30 pulse-2L9K88eMlGn7
drwx------ 2 root root 4,0K syys 26 12:30 pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n
drwx------ 2 lars lars 4,0K syys 26 12:30 ssh-fANTJqSNSZYi
srwxr-xr-x 1 lars lars 0 syys 26 15:24 sylpheed-1000

ProblemType: BugDistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-8.15-generic 3.11.1
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.12.4-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Sep 26 18:25:23 2013
InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/lubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-24 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Beta amd64+mac (20130924)
MarkForUpload: TrueSourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1231520

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

I'm able to replicate it consistently, getting other languages, by choosing a different geographic location at the slide "Where are you?" The language selected at the "Welcome" slide should be the one used to set the locale.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

This also affects packages in the Lubuntu base like Gnumeric, which also are not getting the Locale which was chosen during the installation.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Present even in the Trusty daily amd64+mac snapshot for plain Ubuntu.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[sudodus (nio-wiklund)]

affects me too

[Pasi Lallinaho (knome)]

Just for completeness, can you send the output of 'locale' in an installed system where this bug occurs.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_NAME=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=fi_FI.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

The system seems to conflate language and date format.

[Elfy (elfy)]

I found that if you use Install "Flavour" then the keyboard layout is correctly set after the timezone set

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Keyboard has been fine so far but I should try an alternate layout next time to be sure.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The issue you're seeing is more specifically that LC_TIME is set to fi_FI.UTF-8. So the language setting *in general* is set to en_US, but the time settings are handled based on the target country.

The problem is that LC_TIME controls not only the display language for days of the week / months of the year, but also default time formatting strings for things like time of day and date. It's not obvious, given the choice between the country and the language, that either of these options is more correct than the other.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

The installer asks which language to use. The Alternate installer makes the configurations match that choice. The Desktop installer does not.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Steve and Pasi, for what it's worth, setting LC_TIME="sv_FI.UTF-8" makes the shell display dates (e.g. via ls) in English, but quite ruins many graphical applications. See the attached cropped screenshot to see both.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]