On Sun, 4 Jan 2004, Michael Torrie wrote: > On Sat, 2004-01-03 at 12:00, Justin Findlay wrote: > > Does anyone listening to this list know how to specify the desktop > > language on a user basis in GNOME (or KDE)? I have looked through all the > > preferences and system settings menus in GNOME and found a GUI which only > > can set the system-wide language. The add a new user GUI has no widget to > > set the user's language, because it only updates /etc/passwd, right?, > > which has nothing to do with language. Unfortunately, I know of no other > > system files having to do with users, yet. (Are there any?) I entirely > > believe it possible, but so far to me it is just some unlocatable, random > > line buried in the gconf XML gibberish somewhere. > > I think if you set it in the log in manager (for example, when loggin in > with gdm, you can select languages), then the whole gui reflects it. To > get just one app to go to a particular language, set the "LANG" > environment variable before running an app. For example, LANG=fr or > LANG=es. KDE can also let you set the language for kde apps in it's > control panel I think.
Right, Hello, duh, there it was this whole time as a tidy littly widget on the login screen. Thanks for the help. I posted a very simmilar question on gnome-list and got another very informative reply which I will concatinate shortly. It was very wrong of me, I know. I feel a little guilty hogging so much real time interactive knowledge by posting to two lists with a question I probably could have answered myself with some more perseverence, nevertheless I hereby increment the breadth of the germane google query by repeating this message, so that the one who follows me may have have less need to fall upon last resort asking. The solution which I resolved upon is alarmingly simple. It only needs the presence of an ~/.i18n file, which is just a one-liner, or rather a one-statementer for my penguin who wears a fedora. Justin ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 09:31:51 +0000 From: Telsa Gwynne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: language per user On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 12:28:12PM -0700 or thereabouts, Justin Findlay wrote: > Does anyone listening to this list know how to specify the language on a > user basis in GNOME? I have looked through all the preferences and system > settings menus and found a GUI which only can set the system-wide > language. The add a new user GUI has no widget to set the user's > language, because it only updates /etc/passwd, right?, which has nothing > to do with language. Unfortunately, I know of no other system files > having to do with users, yet. (Are there any?) I entirely believe it > possible, but so far to me it is just some unlocatable, random line buried > in the gconf XML gibberish somewhere. This may be distro-dependent, actually. Are you using GDM? If so, the user can specify the language as they login. I don't use GDM so I forget quite where it is, but it's somewhere obvious. And each user can specify it separately. That is your best bet. If you want to edit all users' languages, then yes, the system-wide one is what you want (be sure that whoever has root understands the language though!). And on a per-user basis, there will be a "dotfile" in the user's home directory. Well, no. You can _make_ such a file: if the user is using the default locale there is no need for it to be present. I used to put everything like this in .bash_profile and .bashrc (because I always forget which does what :)). I still set the sort order (which I don't want to be in any language order, I want to be in "classic" C order, with capital letters coming before lower-case) there. But for language.. well. I'd use that, except if you're on Red Hat or Fedora. On (recent) Red Hat and Fedora, the default locale for the system is in /etc/sysconfig/i18n and the corresponding user one is in ~/.i18n, following the usual pattern of "default in /etc and a dotfile in user's home directory which will override it if it exists". Here's mine: $ cat /etc/sysconfig/i18n LANG="cy_GB.UTF-8" SUPPORTED="cy_GB.UTF-8:en_GB.UTF-8:en_GB:en:en_US.UTF-8:en_US:en" SYSFONT="LatArCyrHeb-16" $ cat .i18n LANG="cy_GB.UTF-8" $ I do not know at all how portable this is across Linux distros, let alone BSD and Solaris. These files don't affect just Gnome. They affect everything. So "date" will return results in the appropriate language too. Telsa _______________________________________________ newbies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://phantom.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/newbies
