Ubuntu 12.04 switches to Chinese language

[[e-mail]]

Again I had to fudge a report through ubuntu-bug to get this posted. Make a general bug report possible, because there are a lot of times there is no way to know what is causing the issue...

On to the bug.

Ubuntu 12.04 changes to Chinese, and using the language suport system in system settings gets you nowhere. It absolutely will not change it back to English.

I did not want, nor did I try to change it to Chinese, it did so after a boot up.

I found the solution to this problem, but that does not mean the bug is solved, and so I am posting this.

The solution right now, is stated here:
http://dennygoot.blogspot.com/2012/07/ubuntu-1204-changes-to-chinese-with-no.html

Please help us remove this bug.

Thank you
-Denny

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gnome-screensaver 3.4.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-26.41-generic-pae 3.2.19
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-26-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Jul 14 15:56:11 2012
GnomeSessionIdleInhibited: No
GnomeSessionInhibitors: None
GsettingsGnomeSession:
 org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay uint32 600
 org.gnome.desktop.session session-name 'ubuntu'
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
SourcePackage: gnome-screensaver
Symptom: security
Title: Screen locking issue
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
WindowManager: No value set for `/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager'

[Amit Mendapara (cristatus)]

I am too having the same issue this morning. This is crazy, I never tried to change the language.

[Manuel (bmw-325i)]

I had the same problem after a fresh install of a 32-bit ubuntu 12.04. With the hints mentioned by the original poster the language can be restored, but in my case the language change came back multiple time which was really annoying.

I figured that apparently there is an automatically installed and non-removable entry of Chinese in the Keyboard Layout config menu in system settings. If you just open this config menu, click through all the tabs and return to the language tab, the first entry of the list will be selected, which is Chinese if you haven't installed any other language alphabetically listed before.

Thus the bug seems to be connected to the Keyboard Layout config dialog which wrongly selects the first entry instead of the currently set language.

Workaround: Avoid the Keyboard Layout config dialog or if you have to use it, always make sure you mark your preferred language in the list under the Language tab before closing the dialog.

[Gintautas Miliauskas (gintas)]

I have hit this problem multiple times as well.

By the way, this seems to be a dupe of +992263

[Gael Lafond (gaellafond)]

I got the same problem a few minutes ago, from a fresh install (Ubuntu 64 bits - Gnome classic). The system switch to Chinese without any apparent reason. I have no Chinese package installed (as long as I know), I don't even know how Ubuntu can translate the UI in Chinese without the Chinese package...

I notice that the language settings for the system was still in English, but the user management setting had switch to Chinese:
Cog (in the top right corner of the top panel) > System Settings > System > User Accounts (bottom right icon)
Language: Chinese (why? I switched it to English and that fixed the problem)

I don't want to reinstall, but I think the following steps may reproduce the bug:

1. Add an extra keyboard layout; I added the French Canadian keyboard (Cog > System Settings > Personal > Keyboard Layout)

2. I clicked on Layouts tab, added the keyboard, than I clicked on the System tab. At the bottom of the Screen, it was showing "Format: Chinese". The system was still in English at that time.
Your settings
* Display language: English (not sure)
* Input source: English (US), French (Canada)
* Format: Chinese
System settings
* Display language: BLANK
* Input source: English (US)
* Format: BLANK

3. I clicked the Language tab. For some reason, Chinese was the first one and of the list and it was selected. I manually selected English. After reboot, the system was in Chinese...

What I think happened:

There is nothing selected for the System settings, so nothing to fallback to when the user has no selection (for language, format and maybe other locale settings not shown there). I suppose that Ubuntu choose the first of the list (alphabetic order) which is Chinese. I can't uninstall Chinese (it seems like it's not even installed).

I hope that can help to track the bug.

[Gael Lafond (gaellafond)]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Ubuntu, Fresh install, with gnome-session-fallback (for Gnome Classic)
2. Log in, on Gnome Classic
3. Go to keyboard layout settings (gnome-control-center > Personal > Keyboard Layout). You should see 4 tabs: Language, Formats, Layouts, System (Language is the default, with no language selected)
4. Click a tab (any other tab than Language) then go back to the Language tab. Chinese has been automatically selected. On next reboot, the system will be in Chinese.

NOTE: With Unity, the Keyboard Layout do not have tabs (only Layouts), so I can't reproduce the bug using those steps.

[Amit Mendapara (cristatus)]

It happened again to me. The same observation as what others commented here. This is really annoying.

[jkbkot (jkbkot)]

This just happened to me this morning. Ubuntu 12.10 with latest updates installed.

[Vineet Deodhar (d-vineet)]

Same here. When I booted up Ubuntu 12.04LTS, it showed Chinese language.