Firefox 3.0 ignores general.useragent.locale (breaks extensions and firefox xpi language packs)

[Eduardo Trápani]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

I'm running Ubuntu 8.04, language-pack-es, Firefox using es-AR.

I go to the addons site and download

Language Switcher - https://addons.mozilla.org/es-ES/firefox/addon/356?id=356
Persian Locale - https://addons.mozilla.org/es-ES/firefox/addon/3667

Then restart. The language is listed I can select it but it will not be shown after restart. I tried to modify about:config, general.useragent.locale but it didn't work either. All this in a newly created user without any additional rights.

If I download the binary version of Firefox 3, then this *works smoothly*, not only with Persian, but with other locales (only available as xpi language packs) too, and I can switch back and forth. But the Ubuntu system firefox is blocked at es-AR.

I think it is a bug, and it's limiting the possibilities of Firefox. There might be a firefox xpi language with no corresponding ubuntu language pack, and in that case it will not be installable.

[Eduardo Trápani (etrapani-gmail)]

If I run:

 /usr/lib/firefox-3.0/firefox -uiLocale fa (for persian)

then it works. That means that the language pack is correctly installed, but somewhere Ubuntu is resetting the uiLocale or general.useragent.locale.

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

I'm guessing that Ubuntu has modified firefox to use language packs from APT repositories, rather than XPI files. Try "sudo aptitude install firefox-locale-es-es".

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Thomas K wrote:
> I'm guessing that Ubuntu has modified firefox to use language packs from
> APT repositories, rather than XPI files. Try "sudo aptitude install
> firefox-locale-es-es".
>
>
Its in language-packs-gnome-es IIRC it is in gnome langpacks but i can
never remember the exact name of them.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Eduardo Trápani (etrapani-gmail)]

If you carefully read the original report you will see that I was trying to install the Persian language pack.

The current language pack approach from Ubuntu breaks the language switcher extension and in fact reduces the choices of languages packs to those already present in Ubuntu. It's harder to develop new language packs and test them.

Why would Ubuntu cripple firefox like that? And make it difficult for users to install simple, small extensions (language .xpi packs) that render their browsers more usable?

>> I'm guessing that Ubuntu has modified firefox to use language packs from
>> APT repositories, rather than XPI files. Try "sudo aptitude install
>> firefox-locale-es-es".

Such a change, if Ubuntu made it, is a bug. It breaks things.

Eduardo.

[Eduardo Trápani (etrapani-gmail)]

A simpler way to test this, from a localized Ubuntu run Firefox 3 and then enter about:config in the address bar.

Then change:

general.useragent.locale

To "en-US"

Restart Firefox. It should show up in English, but it doesn't. Instead the localized setting is kept.

[Jose Troncoso (troncoso)]

Same thing here. My locale is set to "es_ES.UTF-8" and Firefox 3 uses that locale no matter what value is assigned to the "general.useragent.locale" setting.

However I can launch it in English with either of these commands:
$ firefox -UILocale en-US
$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 firefox

[moojix (moojix)]

same thing here, default locale is en_US (should be so, but for testing need firefox de-DE)
- installed Applications/System/Supported Language: English and German (default English)
- firefox about:config general.useragent.locale="de-DE"
- UA: "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; de-DE; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092510 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.3"

locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

workaround for me too:

firefox -UILocale de-DE

(i need this for testing only, default should stay en-US, but want to switch locale with
Quick Locale Switcher https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/1333)

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

once you run something like firefox -UILocale en-US or do any locale switcher you are on your own. Stock ubuntu firefox properly honours your LANG environment.

[moojix (moojix)]

ok, thanks for clarify this.

for development and testing i simply set now the LANG environment variable in my ant exec task before starting FF (and no longer us -UILocale ...).

works for me.