On Fri 28 Feb 2020 at 23:19:07 (+0100), Jonas Smedegaard wrote: > Quoting Ted Baker (2020-02-28 22:41:27) > > Thanks, I was referring to john doe's earlier comment "In other words, > > one language needs to be selected in order to be able to choose 'none' > > (use none if you access the host through SSH) or 'C.UTF-8." > > > > And the fact that in dpkg-reconfigure locales, I didn't see the option > > for C.UTF-8. > > You are asked first which locales to generate, then which to use per > default. > > There's nothing to _generate_ for C.UTF-8 so you won't find it in first > dialog, only in second.
I couldn't quite replicate john doe's post as posted: --✄-------- $ DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text dpkg-reconfigure locales bash: dpkg-reconfigure: command not found $ DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure locales /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure must be run as root $ # DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text dpkg-reconfigure locales Configuring locales ------------------- Locales are a framework to switch between multiple languages and allow users to use their language, country, characters, collation order, etc. Please choose which locales to generate. UTF-8 locales should be chosen by default, particularly for new installations. Other character sets may be useful for backwards compatibility with older systems and software. 1. All locales 167. es_BO ISO-8859-1 333. mn_MN UTF-8 […] 165. es_AR ISO-8859-1 331. mk_MK.UTF-8 UTF-8 497. none of the above 166. es_AR.UTF-8 UTF-8 332. ml_IN UTF-8 (Enter the items you want to select, separated by spaces.) Locales to be generated: --✄-------- Finding item 497, I continued: --✄-------- Locales to be generated: 497 Generating locales (this might take a while)... Generation complete. *** update-locale: Error: invalid locale settings: LANG=en_US.UTF-8 # --✄-------- And, as a consequence of this: --✄-------- ~# locale locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LANGUAGE= 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= # --✄-------- Now the first question was "Please choose which locales to generate." As it happens, I don't need to *generate* any, because I selected en_US.UTF-8 at installation time. So the next step was to rectify the situation: --✄-------- # DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text dpkg-reconfigure locales perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_US.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory /usr/bin/locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory /usr/bin/locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory /usr/bin/locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory Configuring locales ------------------- Locales are a framework to switch between multiple languages and allow users to use their language, country, characters, collation order, etc. Please choose which locales to generate. UTF-8 locales should be chosen by default, particularly for new installations. Other character sets may be useful for backwards compatibility with older systems and software. 1. All locales 167. es_BO ISO-8859-1 333. mn_MN UTF-8 […] 164. eo UTF-8 330. mk_MK ISO-8859-5 496. zu_ZA.UTF-8 UTF-8 165. es_AR ISO-8859-1 331. mk_MK.UTF-8 UTF-8 166. es_AR.UTF-8 UTF-8 332. ml_IN UTF-8 (Enter the items you want to select, separated by spaces.) Locales to be generated: 158 Many packages in Debian use locales to display text in the correct language for the user. You can choose a default locale for the system from the generated locales. This will select the default language for the entire system. If this system is a multi-user system where not all users are able to speak the default language, they will experience difficulties. 1. None 2. C.UTF-8 3. en_US.UTF-8 Default locale for the system environment: 3 Generating locales (this might take a while)... en_US.UTF-8... done Generation complete. # --✄-------- It seems odd to give an option 497, but then not know how to deal with it. (The same error can be provoked in the TUI by providing no * selection.) The upshot is that, if you have a locale set to, say, en_US.UTF-8, you have to run dpkg-reconfigure locales twice in order to "unset" it: once to select None or C, and again to unset en_US.UTF-8. However, it's not clear to me what the "unset"ting it actually does, if anything. dpkg-reconfigure could be a bit clearer about what it *does* do when it emits that error message. BTW gnome is not installed here. Cheers, David.