Debian: What is wrong here? locale-gen seems crazy

dedec0 · 10-28-2017, 12:08 PM

These terminal line lines show a problem with locales I have with a Debian 9 now. Check the commands and a few details on their output:

Code:

$   locale -a
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_COLLATE to default locale: No 
such file or directory
C
C.UTF-8
POSIX
en_US.utf8

$ # so there are 4 locales installed

$  sudo -s
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale 
(pt_BR.utf-8)

# locale-gen pt_BR.utf8 # note which locale we generate!
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

# I did not ask to generate that! Again.

# locale-gen pt_BR.UTF8
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

# exit   # Give up.

$

What is wrong here?

sevendogsbsd · 10-28-2017, 01:00 PM

Just a guess, but what does your "/etc/default/locale" look like? Was this working before, what changed if so? What is the output of the command "locale" with no switches?

dedec0 · 10-28-2017, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

Just a guess, but what does your "/etc/default/locale" look like? Was this working before, what changed if so? What is the output of the command "locale" with no switches?

That machine never totally worked (or is not configured to do so, as I think). The locale problem is strange because what I found and tried to fix it, did not really work.

Code:

$  cat /etc/default/locale 
#  File generated by update-locale
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

$  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="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_NUMERIC="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_TIME="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_COLLATE="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_MONETARY="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_MESSAGES="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_PAPER="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_NAME="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_ADDRESS="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="pt_BR.utf-8"
LC_ALL=pt_BR.utf-8

Everything I tried, to change LANG (and others) on that machine, did not work. The first 3 lines of 'locale' without switches output show a problem. I want to change: default locale (I guess you have already showed me); users may change their locale to a different one, but that is not working as it did in other debianish distros.

sevendogsbsd · 10-28-2017, 01:36 PM

Hmmm, well, your default shows as "en_US.UTF-8" but you have "pt_BR.utf-8" listed as "LC_CTYPE", etc. Not a locale guru but that seems odd. What do you have uncommented in /etc/locale.gen?

dedec0 · 10-28-2017, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

Hmmm, well, your default shows as "en_US.UTF-8" but you have "pt_BR.utf-8" listed as "LC_CTYPE", etc. Not a locale guru but that seems odd. What do you have uncommented in /etc/locale.gen?

The computer came from USA with everything Usonian. The LC_* being pt_BR now are due things I did.

Tne only uncommented line from my /etc/locale.gen was en_US....!

Now I am changing that... to add a few more.

No guru needed, it should be just my usual problems with basic things.
(:

But I have searched around a bit, what I have found did not work - as I said above.

dedec0 · 10-28-2017, 01:53 PM

After the previous post, I have uncommented pt_* and a few other en_* lines in the file /etc/locale.gen . After that, I closed root account and typed "bash" in the parent terminal.

The error about LC_* variables changed! Now it complained only about LC_ALL:

Code:

bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale 
(pt_BR.utf-8)

sevendogsbsd · 10-28-2017, 01:54 PM

I would start with running "dpkg-reconfigure locales" as the wiki recommends first, and see if that works.

dedec0 · 10-28-2017, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

I would start with running "dpkg-reconfigure locales" as the wiki recommends first, and see if that works.

The wiki you meant is wiki.debian.org/Locale ?

I have seen that command you said before. I used it trying to solve a clock problem in the same machine. By then, the command I used was:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
timedatectl set-local-rtc 1
timedatectl # sys date and time

Let me check if this solved it... seems to!
^,^

sevendogsbsd · 10-28-2017, 04:01 PM

Correct, that's the site I looked at.