Text above progress bar during oem-config slideshow is unreadable when using Simplified Chinese

[Kent Baxley]

During Oem-Config, when using Simplified Chinese, the text above the progress bar during the slideshow is unreadable (see attached photo).

Steps to reproduce:

In this case, we are using the dell installer. The first two stages set up the hard drive and copy off needed files to a special partition on the HDD. The system is installed in the 2nd stage from the hard drive, and in stage 3, oem-config runs the Out of Box Experience (OOBE). In OOBE, the user selects their default language, etc. From OOBE, here's how to reproduce:

1) Boot into oem-config / OOBE.
2) Select Simplified Chinese as the choice language.
3) Set up keyboard layout, user accounts, etc.

Actual results:
Near the end of oem-config, the slideshow will begin to finish up the installation. The text above the progress bar is unreadable.

Expected results:
The text should be translated properly. Non-English languages such as Spanish & French are displayed properly at this stage. Simplified Chinese, for some reason is not working.

[Kent Baxley (kentb)]

Photo of corrupted text.

[Kent Baxley (kentb)]

Did some more digging on this...

This method translates the text above the progress bar correctly:

1) Install stock 11.10 in oem-mode
2) When rebooted, click the "prepare for shipment" icon
3) Reboot and select Simplified Chinese during the oem-config phase.
4) The Chinese text above the progress bar during the slideshow is good to go.

This method also works:

1) Install stock 11.10..regular install, no oem-mode.
2) Reboot and install oem-config and oem-config-gtk
3) run "prepare for shipment"
4) reboot and select Simplified Chinese during the oem-config phase.
5) The Chinese text is also correct.

However, if you look at the oem-config logs posted from a dell-recovery installer run, there are several instances of corruption, and it's not just the Chinese language(s). It's almost as if the translation database is somehow hosed up.

With dell-recovery, we can get a correct translation above the progress bar if we initially use English during the installation and then switch to Simplified Chinese when prompted in oem-config. The corruption seems to stem from us adding an SDR file onto the USB stick which would simulate a situation with a machine destined for China in the factory. The dell-recovery code is supposed to be able to grab that information and set things up properly for a Chinese installation...there may be something throwing a wrench in this, though.

Mario and I haven't been able to make this happen in stock Ubuntu (yet). We'll keep digging around. This might be something in dell-recovery rather than ubiquity, but, we're not sure yet.

[Kent Baxley (kentb)]

After some additional digging, we found that this was a bug in Dell-Recovery:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/dell-recovery/+bug/879114

I pointed out the fix to Mario and we've committed it.

[Steve Magoun (smagoun)]

Marking oem-priority task invalid based on comment #5