language-selector installs unwanted translations breaking the interface

[Cyprian Guerra]

Binary package hint: language-selector

It was in Ubuntu since I remember. Installed 10.10 and problem still persists:

1. I install Ubuntu in English,
2. System -> Administration -> Language Support,
3. it suggests me to install english language packs - which is GOOD, but then...
4. I make sure English (United Kingdom) is selected for menus, interface, etc., systemwide,
5. I select ONLY writing aids, etc., for Polish,
6. I set date, currency, etc., to be shown in format typical for Poland - systemwide.

It's all wrong now:
a) calendar starts from Monday, which is good, but it's in Polish (Poniedziałek, Wtorek, Środa... instead of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) which is BAD,
b) update-manager installs packages in Polish or with Polish description (e.g. "Zaawansowana nakładka na dpkg" for apt) which is BAD,
c) when I'm again in System -> Administration -> Language Support, it tells me I didn't install Polish language packs and help files. I know I didn't - I don't want those! That's why I selected "Polish writing aids" ONLY and left translations unchecked,
d) there's still English (United Kingdom) as interface and menus language in "Language Support" menu, yet, it doesn't work (as described in a and b),
e) when 'sudo apt-get update' there are source list signed as "Translations-en" which I do want and suddenly also "Translations-pl" which I do not want (might be related to b).

Someone, please, suggests how to repair it temporarily (it means: keep every translation - like calendar and repositories - in English but in Polish format and Polish servers as those are the closest to my current location).

Cheers!

[Cyprian Guerra (cyprian-guerra)]

I first noticed this problem in April (in Lucid beta, then in official release), now it persists in Maverick (beta).
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1471619

[Ghosty (ghosty.be)]

Same here ... I wanted to change date/time and some other specific settings to my locale nl_BE.utf8 but keep my ubuntu in English.
when selecting this language in the language selector I also got translations inside firefox, thunderbird etc ... even though I set in the language selector that languages should stay in English!

Even worse; tried to override the translation behavior by setting
in: /etc/environment
LANGUAGE="en"
LANG="en_US.utf8"

and in: /etc/default/locale
LANGUAGE="en"
LANG="en_US.utf8"

and STILL it does not fix it, when I run 'locale' (ofcourse after a reboot each time) it still shows everything nl_BE.utf8
So where or how or why is it overriding these config files???
In the end I reverted back to english US for everything :-(

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

@trespasser
I can't tell why Language Support asks you to install the Polish language packs. Maybe you should just install them for now to make your computer happy. ;-)

The language used for weekdays and months is derived from the locale you selected for date format, i.e. Polish in your case. To change date format only, but keep such as currency and number format in Polish, you can edit your ~/.profile file manually and add this line:

export LC_TIME="en_GB.utf8"

@trespasser and Ghosty
When you select different locales for message translation and other localization aspects, Ubuntu mixes them up sometimes. I'm working on a patch that will fix that; see bug 553162. It's conveniently available for testing at https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj/+archive/locale-test

It would be great if you could test the patch and let us know about your observations.

I'm marking this bug report as a duplicate of bug 553162, since they in effect address the same issue.

[Cyprian Guerra (cyprian-guerra)]

@Gunnar
I agree this is a duplicate to the certain point but (please, correct me if I am wrong or missed something in discussion on bug 553162) your patch makes sure $LANG, $LANGUAGE and $LC_MESSAGES all point to the same language. My issue is to separate those variables as I want to see Polish currency (zł or PLN) but English/US decimal separator (. instead of ,) as well as Polish date format (2010-11-10) but English name of days (Wednesday instead of Środa) and Polish days order (weeks in Poland traditionally starts on Monday).

Therefore, in my opinion, language-selector should be reduced to choosing a language only and more advanced changes should be done in custom locale editor (such thing should be introduced). What's more, standard regarding locale should be better documented and guidance for developers on using particular locale variables should be outlined with strong examples.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Please see my reply at bug 553162.