Arch Linux

johnpatcher

Member

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 70

[SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

Hi,

I want to have my Arch in English, but at least the time should be shown in german conventions, as I'm from Germany .

I couldn't find a way to set "LC_TIME" in general for the whole machine, the only way I could figure out is to use a ".profile" file in the home directory.

So I have created a file with the following content:
.profile

export LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8

And placed it in root's homedir /root/.

After logging out and logging in again the locale is changed, so it works as it is supposed to be.

But I also want to change the locale for a normal user called "johnpatcher". Therefore I created a file with the same content in /home/johnpatcher.

But after logging in with the user johnaptcher LC_TIME still remains "en_US.UTF-8", which is quite strange to me.

What have I done wrong? Are there any better solutions to change a locale globally for the whole machine?

I know that I also could try to use the ".bashrc" file, but the ".profile" should work, regardless of what shell I'm using and it actually does for root, but not for a normal user .

Best regards
johnpatcher

Last edited by johnpatcher (2009-08-28 14:10:11)

hunterthomson

Member

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 794

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Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

Ya, I don't know... Sorry. defendantaly a permissions problem but hard to think of a way around it in this pertitular case. Maybe look for an application level solution?

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johnpatcher

Member

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

defendantaly a permissions problem

The file "/home/johnpatcher/.profile" is chmoded to 0777, so normally there shouldn't be any problem with the permission.

Surgat_

Member

Registered: 2007-08-08

Posts: 317

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

I think that the correct place to put that line is in /etc/rc.local, so that it works system-wide.

johnpatcher

Member

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

I think that the correct place to put that line is in /etc/rc.local, so that it works system-wide.

That would probably work just fine, but, to be honest, I want to run my system in English completly, while the user I'm working with (johnpatcher) has some german locales set. I can't understand why something that works just fine for "root" doesn't work for any other user . Quite strange ...

Maxa

Member

Registered: 2008-11-30

Posts: 31

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

I use the same 'hack' and it works here (tm)

In X, starting with "bash --login" sources .profile (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sta … logging_in)
If it happens also with agetty... maybe you have .bash_profile/.bash_login that gets sourced instead?

Mr.Elendig

#archlinux@freenode channel op

From: The intertubes

Registered: 2004-11-07

Posts: 4,092

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

The easiest would be to put it into ~/.bashrc  asuming that you use bash

edit:
@ Surgat_

/etc/profile.d/custom.sh or similar would be a more propper place.

Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2009-08-28 13:57:01)

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johnpatcher

Member

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Changing the locale - Run into problem

In X, starting with "bash --login" sources .profile (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sta … logging_in)

I haven't installed X yet, I'm just refering to the console.

If it happens also with agetty... maybe you have .bash_profile/.bash_login that gets sourced instead?

You are right, ".bash_profile" gets sourced, which contains:

. $HOME/.bashrc

I have changed it to:

. $HOME/.profile
. $HOME/.bashrc

It works now as expected. The root user has no .bash_profile, which explains why it has worked for him without any problem, thanks for the advise . Removing the file completly works also, although the file could be needed .

Last edited by johnpatcher (2009-08-28 14:09:57)