Per-user language setting does not work

[Jakob Unterwurzacher]

Well the story is quite short:
- Login screen is german - OK, I set the system-wide language to german.
- My user account is also german - this is not ok as I set it to english, screenshot:
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/language-selector/+bug/982383/+attachment/3071576/+files/screenshot-gnome-language-selector.png
Note that I did log out and in again. Am I doing it wrong?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: language-selector-gnome 0.78
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 15 16:58:24 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120328)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: language-selector
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

On 2012-04-15 17:07, Jakob Unterwurzacher wrote:
> Note that I did log out and in again. Am I doing it wrong?

To me it seems so.
"Drag languages to arrange them in order of preference.
Changes take effect next time you log in."

[Jakob Unterwurzacher (jakobunt)]

English is on top (see screenshot) - what do you think I did wrong here?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I meant that you need to log out + log in after having changed language from Language Support. Now, after having studied the bug description more carefully, the line "EcryptfsInUse: Yes" tells me that you may have stumbled on bug #952185.

[Rob (rob-robmorton)]

I have the same problem with further ramifications. (My home directory is not encrypted.)

On installation the system defaulted to English US. I suppose this is normal. On trying to set it to English GB via the language support applet, the applet showed the change initially but did not effect the change, even after a reboot. The applet did, however, effect the change to UK regional formats in the Regional Formats tab. The applet terminated unexpectedly and set an automatic bug report.

I eventually changed the default language directly by editing /etc/default/locale. That worked. The language support applet then also showed that the language had been set to English GB. From this, I deduce that the applet is simply not rewriting the first line of /etc/default/locale.

Another user on this machine needs Brazilian Portuguese. This user's language was also now shown as the new default: English GB. This user tried to set the user-specific locale to Brazilian Portuguese. The applet did not effect the change, although, again, it did effect the change to the Brazilian regional formats.

 All appropriate language packs are installed.

Since the applet seems not to be working at the moment, please could you tell me which file I should edit to set the other user's user-specific language to Brazilian Portuguese, leaving mine as English GB? All this worked perfectly in 10.04 two years ago.

Thanks.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Does your home directory contain the file ~/.profile? (Compare bug #1018621.)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Fabio Rauber (fabiorauber)]

Gunnar,

I have the exact same problem as Rob, and my home directory contains the ~/.profile file. Here is the content of /etc/default/locale:

LANG="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LANGUAGE="pt_BR:en_US:en"
LC_NUMERIC="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="pt_BR.UTF-8"

Seems to be correctly configured, but the interface appears in English. It was OK until a recent package update.
~

[Fabio Rauber (fabiorauber)]

Adding

export LC_ALL="pt_BR.UTF-8"
export LANG="pt_BR.UTF-8"

to the ~/.profile file solved the problem. Both I and a colleague had this problem, and we both use likewise-open to autheticate to an Active Directory domain. According to him, a local profile did not experience the issue.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Hi Fabio!

I don't think you have the same problem as Rob. You probably have 'the likewise problem', which you can read about in bug 1162836.

Since you use likewise-open, it would be valuable if you could add your observations to that bug. Especially, can you please show us (at bug 1162836) the output of

  cat /etc/pam.d/common-session

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Fabios problem has been resolved:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/likewise-open/6.1.0.406-0ubuntu8

The rest of this bug is a duplicate of bug 952185, so I mark it as such again.

Please let this bug report rest in peace now. ;-)