Falsely claims that "Try Ubuntu" is possible in all languages

[Thibault D]

Hi,

I'm testing a French daily build of Ubuntu 13.04.

Just after hitting "Test Ubuntu", I opened gnome-language-selector.
It told me that the languages were not completely installed and I answered to remind it me later.

Strangely, in the list of the "Language of the windows and menus", French does not appear at all, but instead I get a bunch of languages (excepted English) that I'm not using :
- English,
- Deutsch (Deutschalnd)
- English (Australia)
- English (Canada)
- English (United Kingdom)
- English (New Zealand)
- English (United States)
- Espanol
- Portugûes (Brasil)
- Portugûes (Portugal)
and probably Chinese (I cannot reproduce the signs bu you can check the screenshot)

This might be considered as "normal" as the languages are not completely installed (as the message said), but still remains very strange for a basic end user testing Ubuntu...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: language-selector-common 0.106
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-11.20-generic 3.8.2
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-11-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.330
Date: Sun Mar 10 18:07:41 2013
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha i386 (20130310)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: language-selector
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Thibault D (thibdrev)]

OK, even after accepting to complete the installation of the languages, French still does not appear in the "Language of the windows and menus" list.

And when I click on "Install / delete the languages..." I get the list of the "installed languages" where the French check-box is not ticked.

But on the same time, I do get the gnome-language-support windows translated in French !

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Hi Thibault, and thanks for your help to make Ubuntu better by reporting this issue!

It's my understanding that the languages you mention (English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and simplified Chinese) are preinstalled in the desktop image. If you select one of those languages and click "Try Ubuntu", you get a decent preview experience in the selected language.

However, if you e.g. select French, it just generates a French locale, sets $LANG to fr_FR.UTF-8 and sets a French keyboard layout. It does not install the French language packs, even if you are connected to Internet, so - as you already know - you don't get the expected preview experience in French.

This is an issue with the Ubuntu installer, so I change the affected package accordingly.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Unfortunately we can only fit so many language packs on the cd. The strings / text one sees during "Install ubuntu" does ship all the translations we have, and one should be able to complete the installation in French. If at the same time internet connection is available french language packs will be downloaded and installed such that the final system will have french localisation.

Based on the heuristics of determining % of world population speakers we try to include languages in the order of most spoken. In that list french is the next one in line and at times is added/removed from the CD image to gain space.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Hi Dmitrijs,

While I understand this limitation, I can think that the UI somehow should state in which languages you can "Try Ubuntu". Now the user is given the wrong impression that any language is available, and becomes disappointed (unless s/he isn't lucky to speak any of the mentioned few languages).

[Thibault D (thibdrev)]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick answers. I understand that we can't fit all languages on the *iso, but the language one select before hitting "Try Ubuntu" should be taken into account and downloaded to be used.

Right now I get the following sequence : select French, hit "Try Ubuntu", open gnome-language-selector, accept to install the remaining languages (which might be loooooong to download)... but still do not get my French... :)

Maybe it could be as follow : select your language, hit "Try Ubuntu", (automatically add your language and remove others than English), and update your language data if you're connected to the Internet.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Yeah, maybe we can launch lang-pack installer, but there is a problem that we may fail to install language pack and or refresh the ui. Language packs can be big and we may run out of memory.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

On 2013-03-11 14:11, Thibault D wrote:
> Right now I get the following sequence : select French, hit "Try
> Ubuntu", open gnome-language-selector, accept to install the remaining
> languages (which might be loooooong to download)... but still do not get
> my French... :)

Actually that's a misconception. What language-selector may prompt you to download is missing language *support* packages of already installed languages. It's typically packages for spell checking etc.

The main issue of this bug report is still just as valid, of course.

@Dmitrijs:
Thanks for considering the functionality. Personally I think it's utterly important that we are attentive to the first impression prospective Ubuntu users get, and this issue is indeed in that category.

Cheers,

[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.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

AFAIK this design issue exists in the current development version.