Public bug reported: In order to change $LANG system-wide, it's necessary to modify both /etc/environment, and /etc/default/locale. This is undocumented, and confusing.
Also, it seems that the definition in /etc/default/locale takes effect second, thus overwriting the value from /etc/environment. Shouldn't this be the other way around? Or defined in one place only? Or at least commented? I've added a section on Locale Variables to the wiki here, so when this bug is fixed, please update: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/environment_variables Perhaps also relevant: 1) Thunderbird uses $LANG rather than the installed language (which is already available as United Kingdom) to determine how it displays dates. 2)None of the usual environment variables are present in the shell. These are present on my Mandriva systems, but absent on Ubuntu - it could be an error, or it could be by design - I don't know, so I'm adding it for completeness: $LC_ADDRESS $LC_CTYPE $LC_MEASUREMENT $LC_MONETARY $LC_NUMERIC $LC_SOURCED $LC_TIME $LC_COLLATE $LC_IDENTIFICATION $LC_MESSAGES $LC_NAME $LC_PAPER $LC_TELEPHONE 3)Why is it necessary to log out and back in for this to take effect? Shouldn't launching another bash shell (Konsole -> new tab) be sufficient for the change in environment to apply? ** Affects: Ubuntu Importance: Undecided Status: Unconfirmed -- $LANG is defined in 2 places: /etc/environment and /etc/default/locale https://launchpad.net/bugs/77983 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
