Changing the language on an already-live box
 

I administer a Linux box overseas and the default installation is not in English. That makes it rather difficult for me to figure out what a variety of error messages mean. I would like to switch this to English, but I don't know how. Is there an easy way to do this? I believe the guy's got Debian... but I can't understand what anything says :rolleyes: ;)

Thanks!

Have a look around in /etc

Most distros will have a *version* or *release* file floating around
in that area ... that should help with assessing the possibilities.


Cheers,
Tink

Okay, /etc/debian_version brings up 3.1. So I guess my initial assessment was correct. How can I proceed?

Thanks!

Aha, okay, so I found out that I should

# dpkg-reconfigure console-data
# dpkg-reconfigure locales

which I did, but I still see output in the other language.

Do I need to reboot now for the changes to go into effect? Otherwise, I'm still in the dark.

Thanks!

Any ideas? The CLI is still pretty much foreign to me.

How could nobody know the answer? :(

You may not have to reboot the machine entirely, but you may have to restart any processes (any open shells, any running daemons: sshd, agetty, (ba)sh, etc.).

I think I may have to reboot... restarted the shell, and no love. Thanks for responding, osor.