Something that I'm struggling with as a newbie, but a Red Hat issue. I like Acrobat Reader over the xpdf reader and installed it. The issue has to do with the defualt environmental variable LANG in Red Hat. Most distro's use the universal default of =C but Red Hat has for some time used LANG=en_US.UTF-8. Acrobat reader does not support UTF-8 unicode so to successfully call up the program you must set the LANG variable to =C before the call up. That works fine and I have it scripted into my shortcuts to acroread.

But to make the plug-in work in Mozilla, I have to find a way to change the LANG=C automatically or to just CHANGE it at boot-up and always have it LANG=C.

My question is twofold. First, can I find a way to make the plug-in work by some scripting magic somewhere? And lacking that, is it possible (and how do I?) and advisible to put LANG=C in the start-up files somewhere. I have cruised a lot of files and still haven't found where Red Hat set's that variable. I have looked at the bashrc, bash_profile, both in the /boot and /etc directories (some of the file just direct the output to the other files.....and all over the place. Red Hat is kind of unorganized in this area.

Does anyone know the solution to this. If not, it's not a big deal as I can always just open documents in xpdf when browsing and I can use Acrobat for opening documents when not browsing. If I set LANG=C it's fine until I close the program then LANG slips back to it's default value.

Thanks.

see /etc/sysconfig/i18n

Zemedico!

Thanks....it would have taken forever to find that file. I changed it, I can now normally open the program...I changed my link to a simple one, and the plug-in works perfectly. This forum is GREAT and I thank you very much.

One more question....NOW that my GLOBAL and FULL TIME setting of LANG=C is there, what implications will that have? Will I see any problems on any other programs? I am still unclear on what all of the UTF codes are and how they differ. So if something wanted a UTF-8 setting now, will that be a problem?

What the heck am I talking about? Anyway, if I can just get a simple answer to what the IMPLICATIONS of changing your environmental varible from "en_US.UTF-8" to "C" for "everything" because its global are, I will be satisfied. For now, it FIXED acrobat and it's plug-in, and I see no other ill effects.

Thanks again and I look forward to someone giving me a little more on the LANG variable and what it REALLY does (Google wasn't much help!)

If you only use ASCII characters, it makes no difference. UTF-8 is great because it allows you to work with characters from almost every language in the world.

If you're really interested you can read the man pages for unicode and utf-8, and there's a Unicode howto over at the Linux Documentation Project:

http://www.tldp.org

Thanks so much for the info. I guess I'll just leave it as is....see if the next version of Reader will work in the other environment, and if I need to, I know how to change back to Unicode...

I thank you again for your help.

su

vi /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread

* add this *

LANG=en_US
export LANG

Hi macewan:

OK....I am now wondering what that will do. I have already changed my SYSTEM to LANG=C which seems to be no problem....Acrobat is behaving as it's supposed to now. I thought my problem was solved. Now, if I edit Acroread and add what you specify, are you saying that will solve my problem if I go BACK to the original configurationz? Or are you saying to add this IN ADDITION to my changing the i18n file?

I guess I could just try a bunch of combinations to get the results I'm looking for. Giving up the UTF-8 enfironment doesn't seem to be a problem, as I see that several other distributions have this as the default.

Please clarify what you are directing me to do with this edit of the acroread file....

Thanks, in advance!

If mozilla calls /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread then macewan's idea should work fine as a substitiute for changing /etc/sysconfig/i18n. Otherwise, you have to find a way to modify LANG for the plugin as well.

ASCII is actually a subset of UTF-8 so you should have no problem running programs like that while the system default is UTF-8.

OK...I'll try a few combinations. I wasn't worried about programs running under UTF-8...that is the way it came out of the box. I was wondering if running under LANG=C (which is the way I have it configured NOW) would be a problem. I didn't think so, especially being here in the US and stuff...

OK...I'll just play with it, back up my files, and just find the best combination. I'm not sure WHAT the plug-in "call" is for the program...I should read it and find out...

Thanks again

You can configure mozilla to call external programs here:

Edit->Preferences->Navigator->Helper Applications

Everybody, you have been a great help. I am not a programmer, but just a REAL newbie with Linux (one month) and enjoying it very much. I tried to edit the acroread file but it didn't work when changing the i18n file back to it's original. Maybe I am putting it in the wrong place, but I tried to LANG=en_US and export that...then I tried LANG=C and export that...but I put it at the end of the file....I could try it at the beginning of the file.

However....I am satisfied the way things work with thi i18n edit. ALL FUNCTIONS PERFECTLY. I will only hope that Adobe addresses this issue on the next release (hopefully coming soon now that 6.0 is out on the Windows and Mac side).

Being a newbie, I have come a long way, thanks to the help of the documentation, the community (meaning all of YOU) and the neat "club" atmosphere of the entier GNU/Linux arena.

Just today I compiled my first installations from source code. I can't DO CODE yet, but I'm trying to get ahold of the system. I have made several software adjustments and am starting to get much more comfortable with the system.

OK...the thing about Linux is....once you get it configured and working (admittedly, sometimes a chore as illustrated by tonight) it works consistently and reliably. THAT is the big plus for the office desktop environment. STABILTY....and THIS IS IT.

I am VERY impressed.

So thanks and I'll call when I need help again (probably soon!)

Putting it an the end of the file would have no affect, it must be near the beginning.

OK....I'll try that too! I'm just trying to learn stuff so poking around like this is fun. Thanks....I'll let you know if it worked.

You guys did it for me! It worked. I set LANG=C and exported right at the beginning of the acroread file (just after the directory entry) and changed my i18n file back to the original. It works great...and the plug-in module does from Mozilla as well.

I cannot thank you enough. Now my environment is set properly globally, but specialized only for Acrobat Reader...just the way I wanted it. Thanks again for all of your help...you guys (and gals) are terrific!

By the way, have you tried GGV?