Ubiquity does not create correct UTF-8 locales

[Simos Xenitellis ]

When Ubuntu 13.04 is installed using the default English locale,
it also created locales for the country/lanugage you are installing from (it takes this information from GEOIP when setting the timezone).
However, the current country (non-English) locale is not a UTF-8 locale, and causes issues with the display of UTF-8 text in the system.

WHO ARE AFFECTED
The Greek localisation is affected. Probably also affected is Cyrillic (Russian, etc).

HOW TO REPRODUCE:
1. Install Ubuntu 13.04 using the default language (English).
You need to get GEOIP to show that you are at least from Greece (GEOIP to Greece), so that the timezone appears to be Athens/Greece. OR, you can select Athens in the timezone settings during installation.
2. Once you are in Ubuntu 13.04, click on the calendar applet.
You get http://imagebin.ubuntu-gr.org/1363895959.png (WRONG, locale strings are probably shown as ISO-8859-7)
It should be like http://i.imgur.com/MHA1b8O.png (GOOD)

WORKAROUND
Install the language support for Greek so that UTF-8 locales are also created.
Or, run
dpkg-reconfigure locales (not verified yet)

LOCALES ON BAD SYSTEM
http://pastebin.ubuntu-gr.org/d2f25103b (Note that the Greek locale is "el_GR", with no reference to .UTF-8/.utf8).
[If above pastebin URL does not work, see attachment below]

REFERENCES
Discussion at Ubuntu-gr (Greece)
http://forum.ubuntu-gr.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26538

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux)]

Fresh install - same problem !

[Elias Psallidas (eliasps)]

I am also affected by this bug, another workaround for Greek users is to change the location from Athens, Greece (which is autodetected) to something else (ex. New York, US), but this is not a solution.
In (now official) Ubuntu GNOME 13.04, the same bug causes problems on GDM and GNOME Shell and they are unable to load (JS ERROR on /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/dateMenu.js due to the locales issue), so users cannot login and use the D.E.

[Kay (ksthiele)]

same issue here, the only way to display the clock is by ticking only 24-hour time, no weekday or data and month.

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

@Kay: Which is your language that gets affected? Which locale?

[Kay (ksthiele)]

@Simos Greece locale. English system language.

[Kay (ksthiele)]

Ok, this bug is even worse than previously thought, I can't open Libre office because of this.

ls: error initializing month strings
/usr/bin/libreoffice: 49: cd: can't cd to lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 ���../lib/libreoffice/program
/usr/bin/libreoffice: 156: exec: /usr/bin/oosplash: not found

Moreover Dates all over the system are not shown, only the numbers, no text (e.g April)

[Kay (ksthiele)]

To fix this go to

System Settings > Language Support > Regional Format

- change your language (e.g. English (United States)) and press 'Apply System Wide'

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

@Kay: That is a "workaround", not a fix. So, it is an issue that needs resolving.

The change in Ubiquity that caused this bug is at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1094872

[N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux)]

An additional log that might help developers to debug the problem.

ubuquitydebug.txt is a file from a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04 with default settings and Athens as timezone (default detection by installer).

I ran "sudo ubiquity --debug" in a terminal.

[Elias Psallidas (eliasps)]

Russian locale is not affected.
I installed Ubuntu 13.04 on VirtualBox, using English system language and changed the location (from Athens, Greece which is auto-detected) to Moscow, Russia.
After the installation the Time & Date indicator was looking corrent (with Russian language), so was the calendar.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 2.14.2

---------------
ubiquity (2.14.2) raring; urgency=low

  [ Dmitrijs Ledkovs ]
  * Do not select disabled partitioning options, even if they are at the
    top of the list, e.g. when offline, upgrade option is disabled and at
    the top of the list. (LP: #1152921) Make the upgrade option
    description also insensitive when disabled, to match visual style.
  * Do not allow encrypting, encrypted volumes, by filtering out crypto
    method from "use as" combo box. (LP: #1131761)

  [ Colin Watson ]
  * Don't strip qualifiers off the locale used for non-translation-like
    categories when only a single UTF-8 locale matches the selected location
    (LP: #1158750).
  * Automatic update of included source packages: flash-kernel
    3.0~rc.4ubuntu31.
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:31:51 +0100