Ubuntu – Use English for installation, but user language in installed Ubuntu

14.04guilanguagelocalizationtranslation

We would like to use the English language during the installation process.

After that, we want to be able to add another language.

We tried that by selecting English in the installation stage and add the user's language
after the installation completed.

The results were not acceptable: a big mix of English and the user's language within the GUI of Ubuntu itself and its applications.

Basically, what is the best way to use English during the installation process, and another language after the installation completed, regardless of the exact user language?

Best Answer

If the translation into a language is not complete, especially if it's not complete with respect to the GUIs of the most important applications, selecting that language as the display language will result in a mix of the language in question and English. Translations are mostly done by volunteers, and if you have an interest in improving the situation for your language, please let your translation team know.

The problem you describe has nothing to do with which language you select at installation. The display language can be changed at any time via Language Support.

As regards the translation of the Ubuntu User Guide in 14.04, as you asked specifically about in another question (which I consider to be a duplicate of this question), you can see how large percentage of the strings are translated for respective language at this page.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – English as a system language but Russian regional settings

If you execute locale you can see the language variables that are used for various sections of the operating system:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

More about locale variables in the gettext manual: Locale Environment Variables - GNU `gettext' utilities

You can export these variables e.g. export LC_PAPER="ru_RU.UTF-8" - this will make a temporary change.

If you want to make it permanent you can change the regional formats using gnome-language-selector. Or you can add the export command in ~/.profile and/or ~/.bashrc

For the papersize, I found that you can edit /etc/papersize - change "letter" to "a4". You might also need to set export LC_PAPER="en_GB.UTF_8" (or maybe export LC_PAPER="ru_RU.UTF_8" if ru_RU defaults to A4)

Source: answers.launchpad.net: Question #6846 : Questions : “evince” package : Ubuntu

P.S. Personally I use en_GB (English / United Kingdom) for everything since it uses the SI metric system instead of American English and US units.

Ubuntu – Why is overriding the LANG environment variable not changing the language for me

Because LANGUAGE, which takes precedence over LANG, is set and unchanged.

$ LANGUAGE=nl ls /nonexistent
ls: kan geen toegang krijgen tot /nonexistent: Bestand of map bestaat niet

More info is in the GNU gettext documentation:

GNU gettext gives preference to LANGUAGE over LC_ALL and LANG for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to have LANG (or LC_ALL) set to the primary language; this is required by other parts of the system libraries.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – English as a system language but Russian regional settings

Ubuntu – Why is overriding the LANG environment variable not changing the language for me

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