Swahili support broken

[Mogens Dybæk Christensen]

Had Ubuntu desktop 7.10, english language only. Then I installed all packages in Synaptic that matched "swahili", since this laptop is intended for a project in Tanzania. Got the spell checker in OpenOffice.org (still english menus) to check some swahili (the few words I know), but it is not possible to select the swahili language at login. sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales still only generates variants of english.
In the meantime the system has been upgraded to 8.04, but it did not help on this problem.
Got a hint, that I should edit /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local , but "sw_TZ.UTF-8 UTF-8" and similar guesses don't work.
I assume UTF-8 should be used, since I want users to see the same files independent of their language preference. And, as far as I know, swahili uses the same alphabet as english.

Later i unintstalled all swahili packages (except OpenOffice) via Synaptic, then reselected swahili in "Language Support". I also selected danish, just to see if it worked.

Danish works fine, but swahili does not appear in the login->Options menu. So, I assume the swahili package is broken/incomplete.

[Dereck Wonnacott (dereck)]

<email address hidden> appears to be the man to talk to.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuSwahiliTranslators

[Daniel (ecnarf371)]

Hi there. I too am having a problem with this. I emailed that person, but is there anything else we can do?
I am running the current, most up-to-date version of Ubuntu.
I installed German and Swahili via System->Administration->Language Support.
In the terminal, I typed: sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales and only German and English locales were found.
Upon logging out, at the login screen I click on Options, switch language, and only English and German variants are present.
Please let me know if there's anything else I can do.

[Daniel (ecnarf371)]

Assigned to the Swahili Translation Team.

[Mogens Dybæk Christensen (mdc)]

Hi

This is exactly what I experienced, except I have english and danish. It is Ubuntu 8.04.

I have passed the computer to the person who will carry it to Tanzania, so I don't have access to it. But I hope a fix for the swahili package will appear. Then I can get someone to update the computer.

/Mogens

Daniel <email address hidden> wrote:
> Hi there. I too am having a problem with this. I emailed that
> person, but is there anything else we can do?
> I am running the current, most up-to-date version of Ubuntu.
> I installed German and Swahili via System->Administration->Language
> Support.
> In the terminal, I typed: sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales and only
> German and English locales were found.
> Upon logging out, at the login screen I click on Options, switch
> language, and only English and German variants are present.
> Please let me know if there's anything else I can do.
>
> --
> Swahili support broken
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/237130
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct
> subscriber
> of the bug.

--
Mogens Dybæk Christensen
e-mail mailto:<email address hidden>
Sendt via WEB-mail.

[Miano Njoka (mianonjoka)]

bump

[Jonathan Marsden (jmarsden)]

It seems that the language-pack-sw* packages (in Hardy at least) simply do not contain Swahili locale data. The file /var/lib/locales/supported.d/sw is an empty file (zero bytes long), unlike all the other files in that directory.

So, the locales package and the locale-gen program can't compile a Swahili locale. And by design, you can't persuade gdm to let you select a locale you don't have on your system, so the menus don't include it as a language choice.

It might be worth mailing <email address hidden> to see if the language pack maintenance team as a whole has any advice or suggestions?

Perhaps the folks you are sending out with a Ubuntu machine can actually help create the missing locale data themselves, and contribute it back to Ubuntu!

Jonathan

[Mogens Dybæk Christensen (mdc)]

I have contacted the language-packs team.

The current users, I am in contact with, can at best be beta testers.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

According to the langpack-locales package there does not exist any Swahili locale, neither sw_TZ, nor any other sw_* locale. The locale data is needed for any system to actually use that language.

I can create a locale for Swahili for you, but would need the help of native speakers to translate the strings.

The following strings are needed:

int_curr_symbol (ex.: USD)
currency_symbol (ex.: $)
mon_decimal_point (ex.: .)
mon_thousands_sep (ex.: ,)
abday (ex.: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)
day (ex.: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
abmon (ex.: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)
mon (ex.: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)
d_t_fmt (ex.: %a %d %b %Y %r %Z)
d_fmt (ex.: %m/%d/%Y)
t_fmt (ex.: %r)
t_fmt_ampm (ex.: %I:%M:%S %p)
am_pm (ex.: AM, PM)
date_fmt (ex.: %a %b %e %H:$M:%S %Z %Y)
yesexpr (ex.: ^[yY].*)
noexpr (ex.: ^[nN].*)
yesstr (ex.: Yes)
nostr (ex.: No)
Paperformat (A4?): height, width (297, 210)
Measurement system: metric or US?
name_fmt
name_miss (ex.: Miss.)
name_mr (ex.: Mr.)
name_mrs (ex.: Mrs.)
name_ms (ex.: Ms.)
postal_fmt (ex.: %c%N%T%N%s %h %e %r%N%b%N%d%N%f%N%a%N)
country_name (ex.: Tanzania)
lang_name (ex.: Swahili)
tel_int_fmt (ex.: +%c (%a) %l)
tel_dom_fmt (ex.: (%a) %l)
int_select (ex. 00)
int_prefix (ex. 0)

Plus, I would need the complete alphabet and the correct sorting order for Swahili.

Information about the format strings can be found here: http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/sc22/WG20/docs/n897-14652w25.pdf

If anyone can provide me the data listed above for Swahili, I can make a locale and send it to upstream.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

reassigned to langpack-locales

[Mogens Dybæk Christensen (mdc)]

I just found the links, that first made me believe that swahili support
already existed

kilinux project

http://www.it46.se/reference_show.php?ref=2a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilinux

It seems to be more focused on OpenOffice.org than I first noticed, and
I think that code is in the current version. But since the locale at
*nix level cannot be selected at login, only the dictionary works.

Maybe the people at it46.se have the information you need to create the
locale.

:-)
Mogens

Arne Goetje wrote:
> According to the langpack-locales package there does not exist any
> Swahili locale, neither sw_TZ, nor any other sw_* locale. The locale
> data is needed for any system to actually use that language.
>
> I can create a locale for Swahili for you, but would need the help of
> native speakers to translate the strings.
>
> The following strings are needed:
>
> int_curr_symbol (ex.: USD)
> currency_symbol (ex.: $)
> mon_decimal_point (ex.: .)
> mon_thousands_sep (ex.: ,)
> abday (ex.: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)
> day (ex.: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
> abmon (ex.: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)
> mon (ex.: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)
> d_t_fmt (ex.: %a %d %b %Y %r %Z)
> d_fmt (ex.: %m/%d/%Y)
> t_fmt (ex.: %r)
> t_fmt_ampm (ex.: %I:%M:%S %p)
> am_pm (ex.: AM, PM)
> date_fmt (ex.: %a %b %e %H:$M:%S %Z %Y)
> yesexpr (ex.: ^[yY].*)
> noexpr (ex.: ^[nN].*)
> yesstr (ex.: Yes)
> nostr (ex.: No)
> Paperformat (A4?): height, width (297, 210)
> Measurement system: metric or US?
> name_fmt
> name_miss (ex.: Miss.)
> name_mr (ex.: Mr.)
> name_mrs (ex.: Mrs.)
> name_ms (ex.: Ms.)
> postal_fmt (ex.: %c%N%T%N%s %h %e %r%N%b%N%d%N%f%N%a%N)
> country_name (ex.: Tanzania)
> lang_name (ex.: Swahili)
> tel_int_fmt (ex.: +%c (%a) %l)
> tel_dom_fmt (ex.: (%a) %l)
> int_select (ex. 00)
> int_prefix (ex. 0)
>
> Plus, I would need the complete alphabet and the correct sorting order
> for Swahili.
>
> Information about the format strings can be found here:
> http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/sc22/WG20/docs/n897-14652w25.pdf
>
> If anyone can provide me the data listed above for Swahili, I can make a
> locale and send it to upstream.
>
>

[Mogens Dybæk Christensen (mdc)]

I am in contact with a danish IT consultant, currently working in Tanzania.

He may be able to deliver the data Arne listed, so a locale can be created.

/Mogens Dybæk Christensen

Arne Goetje wrote:
> ** Changed in: langpack-locales (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: Arne Goetje (arnegoetje) => (unassigned)
>
>

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

Created attachment 5277
Locale for swahili in Kenya

Here are new locales for Swahili (official languages in Kenya and Tanzania).

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

Created attachment 5278
Locale for swahili in Tanzania

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package langpack-locales - 2.13+git20100825-3

---------------
langpack-locales (2.13+git20100825-3) natty; urgency=low

  * debian/rules: Add "pull-upstream" rule to grab the current glibc git head
    locale data.
  * Add ubuntu-sw.patch: Add sw_KE and sw_TZ, thanks Claude Paroz!
    (LP: #237130)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:01:10 +0100

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

Created attachment 5330
Locale for swahili in Kenya

Changed lang_name in native language (Swahili->Kiswahili)

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

Created attachment 5331
Locale for swahili in Tanzania

Changed lang_name in native language (Swahili->Kiswahili)

[Drepper-fsp (drepper-fsp)]

I added the files.