(xenial) installation of kde-l10n-nl ruins plasma

[pieter k]

When I install Kubuntu Xenial from usb, plasma 5 doesn't start up.
I found out that this is caused by kde-l10n-nl. Even when ubiquety installs the language pack automatically, the system can't startup.

The version number of kde-l10n-nl is 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1.
This in contrast to the German language pack that is of the version 4:15.12.1-0 and that leaves the system in tact.

[pieter k (pieterkristensen)]

as far as I can see, the dutch l10n package is the only one with the old version number.

[pieter k (pieterkristensen)]

To make things clearer:
when I do in a konsole-terminal sudo apt-get install kde-l10n-nl the system returns to me:

De volgende pakketten zullen VERWIJDERD worden:
(The following packages will be REMOVED:)
kubuntu-desktop plasma-desktop plasma-desktop-data

so then it's obvious that plasma won't startup next time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sven (brettschneider-sven)]

kde-l10nl-dutch, does not seem to be the only language pack with this problem:

A snipped of all language packs with the same problem "apt search kde-l10n":
----------------------------------------------------------------------
kde-l10n-ja/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  ja (ja) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-kk/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  kk (kk) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-km/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  km (km) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-ko/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  ko (ko) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-lt/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  lt (lt) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-lv/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  lv (lv) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-mr/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  mr (mr) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-nb/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  nb (nb) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-nds/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  nds (nds) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-nl/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  nl (nl) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-nn/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  nn (nn) localization for KDE

kde-l10n-pa/xenial,xenial 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all
  pa (pa) localization for KDE
----------------------------------------------------------------------

When trying to install one of these packages I encounter the same problem...

[pieter k (pieterkristensen)]

I don't know at all if this bug is a duplicate. This bug e.g. is very specific. It boils down to the fact that everyone who chooses Dutch as installer language will get a broken system.
And thanks to Sven we know that this goes for quite some other languages too.

This looks like a showstopper to me.

[Wim De Winter (wim-de-winter)]

I must agree with pieter k, I don't think this bug is a duplicate. I can't find any mentioning of the kde-l10-nl package in the bug report of bug 1558401, or any of the language packs mentioned above.

[pieter k (pieterkristensen)]

The languages mentioned above have all a kde language pack. In parenthesis I put the number of millions of native speakers according to wikipedia:
japan (125) kazakh (11) khmer (16) korean (80) lithuanian (3) latvian (1,75) marathi (73) norway (both language versions) (5) Low Saxon (9+) punjabi (100) dutch (22)

Kubuntu just release a LTS. All people who choose these languages as default will have a broken Kubuntu system.

Note: the fact that there are language packs in these languages means that there is a substantial kde userbase.
What happens with this bug? Nothing.
Please prioritize!
This is bad for Kubuntu as a brand!

[Wim De Winter (wim-de-winter)]

I installed kde-l10n-nl_15.12.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb from here:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/yakkety/amd64/kde-l10n-nl/4:15.12.3-0ubuntu1

Seems to solve my problem.

[Sven (brettschneider-sven)]

Yes it does install indeed. It still is a proposed package though. Hopefully this package will get released soon.

[Koen Rousseau (koen-0)]

Importance: Undecided?!
Assigned to: Unassigned?!

[Sven (brettschneider-sven)]

I have been tried to contact a package maintainer on #kubuntu and #kubuntu-devel.
So far no luck :-(

[Sylvia (iamsylvie)]

Can anyone please take care of this? A friend of mine had system updates broken silently due to a notification popping up, telling them language packs were missing. Upon clicking it, it installed kde-l10n-nl but left it unconfigured due to dependency problems, causing the user to not receive any updates (including security updates!) since. I worked around this issue on the system by removing kde-l10n-nl, but clearly this issue, aside from breaking new installs, will break system updates on existing installs!

[Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug got fixed with the updates coming from bug #1576455 "SRU kde-language-packs mismatch".

Pls see comment #13 there.

We apologize for any inconvenienes this has caused. Thanks again for reporting this issue! Please don't hesistate to report any bugs that you find in future days.

[pieter k (pieterkristensen)]

I'm happy to have helped. This must have raised a lot of questions with users in production environments who switched to 16.04 thinking it was a safe upgrade.
I hope kubuntu didn't lose to much users in the countries affected.