"UILocale" option in firefox commandline not working in Ubuntu Lucid releases

[K. Sethu]

Binary package hint: firefox

Commencing from Ubuntu Karmic version, when a language-pack base package is installed, the Firefox language pack extensions for the same language (if available) also got installed globally inside the directory /usr/lib/firefox-addons/extensions/

But unlike in Karmic, the command line option of "uilocale" with "firefox" command for setting language localization of the browser does not work as expected in Lucid releases so far. (uilocale is a.k.a "UILocale")

Suppose we are operating the desktop in en_US.UTF-8 locale, then the default launch of Firefox would also be with US-English interface. If we then need to continue having the desktop operated in same locale, but want to use Fx with say Tamil "ta" localization, then in Karmic, one of the following two commands could be issued from a terminal after first closing all opened instances of Firefox.

1). export LANG=ta_IN && firefox

2). firefox -uilocale ta

However now in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx releases so far, (including Beta -2 with Firefox latest 3.6.3), the command usage with the "-uilocale" option does not work. If that command usage is entered, it only launches the browser in the language of the locale from which the browser is launched. I have tested with other languages too such as Sinhala (si) and Hindi (hi) and find the same result in each case, as if the "uilocale" command line option is no longer supported (though the help request "firefox -h" in Lucid still lists short description of "UILocale" option)

The correct functioning of the "uilocale" option(as it was in Karmic which is as per generic scheme of Mozilla Firefox), would be of good use for the following reason:

Command line usage with uilocale option is more convenient for novice users to put in a launcher - for example I can use separate profiles for English, Tamil and Sinhala (say profiles foo1, foo2 foo3 respectively) and in Karmic , have 3 separate launchers for following commands respectively:

firefox -P foo1 -no-remote -uilocale en
firefox -P foo2 -no-remote -uilocale ta
firefox -P foo3 -no-remote -uilocale si

These if launched at same time, then each is an independent instance providing localized interface as according to the uilocale option it was launched with and also be independent of the language locale from which it is launched

But now in the absence of a working "uilocale" option in Lucid, for a particular language localization, the corresponding command could be only with preceding "export LANG=...."; and such form cannot be directly inserted into a launcher but has to be put in a shell script file and have that as script file name as command in the launcher. That is, more work and less convenient situation in Lucid for novice users.

Therefore I request that the functionality of the firefox commandline option of "uilocale" to be restored.

K. Sethu

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Helmo (helmo)]

I also noticed this today.

The profile selection is not affected by the uilocale option. After selecting a profile firefox starts in the desired language.

[bam (mybigspam)]

The problem is still persists