MDM messes with my system locale

Ceipheed · 2016-01-21 17:00:54

Hello. First, a little background: yesterday I did a system update (the last time before that was also this week, so it was neither overdue nor a big update) and after it completed, left my laptop unattended and the battery died.

Problem started after I rebooted: when I started it up again, I had Dropbox alert me of an error after login; it said to send this log in for debugging:

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 3.12.6
bn.DROPBOXEXT_VERSION: failed
bn.is_frozen: True
pid: 7065
ppid: 1
ppid exe: failed
uid: 1000
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='ceipheed', pw_passwd='x', pw_uid=1000, pw_gid=1000, pw_gecos='', pw_dir='/home/ceipheed', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='ceipheed', pw_passwd='x', pw_uid=1000, pw_gid=1000, pw_gecos='', pw_dir='/home/ceipheed', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 1000
gid: 1000
egid: 1000
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='ceipheed', gr_passwd='x', gr_gid=1000, gr_mem=[])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='ceipheed', gr_passwd='x', gr_gid=1000, gr_mem=[])
LD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
     real_path='/'
           	mode=040755	uid=0	gid=0
     parent	mode=040755	uid=0	gid=0
HOME: u'/home/ceipheed'
appdata: u'/home/ceipheed/.dropbox/instance1'
         real_path=u'/home/ceipheed/.dropbox/instance1'
               	mode=040700	uid=1000	gid=1000
         parent	mode=040700	uid=1000	gid=1000
dropbox_path: u'/home/ceipheed/Dropbox'
              real_path=u'/windows/Users/Benjamin/Dropbox'
                    	mode=040777	uid=0	gid=0
              parent	mode=040700	uid=1000	gid=1000
sys_executable: '/home/ceipheed/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.12.6/dropbox'
                real_path='/home/ceipheed/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.12.6/dropbox'
                      	mode=0100755	uid=1000	gid=1000
                parent	mode=040755	uid=1000	gid=1000
trace.__file__: '/home/ceipheed/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.12.6/library.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
                real_path='/home/ceipheed/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.12.6/library.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
                      	not found
                parent	not found
tempdir: '/tmp'
         real_path='/tmp'
               	mode=041777	uid=0	gid=0
         parent	mode=040755	uid=0	gid=0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dropbox/client/main.py", line 4065, in main_startup
  File "dropbox/client/main.py", line 1964, in run
  File "dropbox/client/main.py", line 1299, in activate_translation
  File "dropbox/i18n.py", line 265, in activate_translation
  File "dropbox/i18n.py", line 310, in system_lang_code
  File "dropbox/i18n.py", line 428, in get_system_languages
  File "locale.py", line 543, in getdefaultlocale
  File "locale.py", line 475, in _parse_localename
ValueError: unknown locale: xxxxx

The error here is that the locale (which should be en_US.UTF-8) was somehow replaced by xxxxx, where xxxxx is actually my user's login password. you can see this in the last line.

Running locale as a normal user, under sudo and after sudo su all produce the same:

[root@SatelliteArch ceipheed]# 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=
LC_CTYPE="xxxxx"
LC_NUMERIC="xxxxx"
LC_TIME="xxxxx"
LC_COLLATE="xxxxx"
LC_MONETARY="xxxxx"
LC_MESSAGES="xxxxx"
LC_PAPER="xxxxx"
LC_NAME="xxxxx"
LC_ADDRESS="xxxxx"
LC_TELEPHONE="xxxxx"
LC_MEASUREMENT="xxxxx"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="xxxxx"
LC_ALL=

Also,

[root@SatelliteArch ~]# echo $LANG
xxxxx

But what's weird about this is that...

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ sudo 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
POSIX
en_US.utf8
ja_JP.utf8

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ sudo localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: la-latin1
      X11 Layout: n/a

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ cat /etc/locale.conf
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ cat .bashrc
#
# ~/.bashrc
#

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

alias ls='ls --color=auto'
export EDITOR=nano
PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '

These are the config files in my PC. All is as it was and always has been since I installed Arch a couple months ago.

It is definitely the Display Manager that's messing with my locale because if I reboot my pc, get to graphical login and do Alt+Ctrl+F1 and log in that way, my locale is correctly set as en_US.UTF-8 (or en_US.utf8, can't remember). I tried uninstalling and re-installing MDM, but it didn't work.

If at graphical login I go out of my way to select en_US.UTF-8 from the Languages menu, everything works peachy. But when I restart, the problem comes back.

I even tried

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ cat .bash_profile
#
# ~/.bash_profile
#
export LANG=en_US.utf8
[[ -f ~/.bashrc ]] && . ~/.bashrc

but it didn't help.

I have not tried using a different DM.

Here is yesterday's pacman log:

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep 01-20
[2016-01-20 11:25] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2016-01-20 11:25] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2016-01-20 11:25] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] transaction started
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded cups-filters (1.6.0-1 -> 1.7.0-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded gnome-bluetooth (3.18.1-1 -> 3.18.2-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded hwdetect (2015.01-1 -> 2016.01-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded libibus (1.5.11-2 -> 1.5.12-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded ibus (1.5.11-2 -> 1.5.12-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded ibus-anthy (1.5.7-2 -> 1.5.8-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded libsecret (0.18.3-1 -> 0.18.4-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded linux (4.3.3-2 -> 4.3.3-3)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio. Please wait...
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 4.3.3-3-ARCH
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip-compressed initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 4.3.3-3-ARCH
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: wd719x
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip-compressed initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded perl-html-parser (3.71-4 -> 3.72-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] upgraded perl-module-build (0.4214-1 -> 0.4216-1)
[2016-01-20 11:27] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2016-01-20 17:03] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syyu'
[2016-01-20 17:03] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2016-01-20 17:03] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2016-01-20 17:03] [ALPM] transaction started
[2016-01-20 17:03] [ALPM] upgraded fuse (2.9.4-1 -> 2.9.5-1)
[2016-01-20 17:03] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2016-01-20 17:45] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -R mdm-display-manager'
[2016-01-20 17:45] [ALPM] transaction started
[2016-01-20 17:46] [ALPM] warning: /etc/mdm/custom.conf saved as /etc/mdm/custom.conf.pacsave
[2016-01-20 17:46] [ALPM] removed mdm-display-manager (2.0.4-1)
[2016-01-20 17:46] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] mdm:x:128:128:Linux Mint Display Manager:/var/lib/mdm:/sbin/nologin
[2016-01-20 17:46] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] mdm:x:128:
[2016-01-20 17:46] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2016-01-20 17:54] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman --color auto -U /tmp/yaourt-tmp-ceipheed/PKGDEST.12a/mdm-display-manager-2.0.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz'
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM] transaction started
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM] installed mdm-display-manager (2.0.4-1)
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] 
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  By default the tty1 is disabled, this because a bug
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  that if tty1 is runing, then mdm is automagically  
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  restarted in a infinite loop, this take around     
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  1 minute post login, please not force the use of   
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  getty@tty1 unles you know how deal with the problem
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] 
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]  For systemd use: # systemctl enable mdm
[2016-01-20 17:54] [ALPM] transaction completed

It most definitely ins't a big deal. Like I said, I can avoid the incorrect locale by spending 5 more seconds at login. Still, I don't like the idea of having a problem and not knowing the cause of it.

Thanks for the help. If you need any other info, please let me know.

ewaller · 2016-01-21 17:10:07

I know nothing of MDM, but I would look for any configuration files that belong to it and would remove or move them so they are not found. Look in /etc/, in $HOME, in $HOME/.config, and in in $HOME/.local

Also, what happens if you try to log in as a different user?

Ceipheed · 2016-01-21 22:15:00

I created a new user and it doesn't suffer from this problem, so I guess we can rule out any misconfiguration in /etc/mdm, right?

At first glance, nothing seems related to mdm in either ~.local or ~.config

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ ls .local/share
Trash  applications  cinnamon  data  gsettings-data-convert  gvfs-metadata  icc  icons  keyrings  nemo  puddletag  recently-used.xbel  webkitgtk

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ ls .config
Clementine      cinnamon-session  gnome-mplayer                                       gtk-2.0     libreoffice    psd           systemd
OpenSCAD        dconf             google-chrome                                       gtk-3.0     menus          puddletag
QtProject.conf  eog               google-chrome-back-ovfs                             ibus        mimeapps.list  pulse
Trolltech.conf  gconf             google-chrome-backup                                ibus-anthy  monitors.xml   qBittorrent
autostart       gedit             google-chrome-backup-crashrecovery-20160120_143134  kicad       nemo           sound-juicer

I did take a peek inside ~.local/share/cinnamon and ~.local/share/applications, but they only concerned to the DE and Chrome stuff respectively.

~.config/systemd only had a *.service file for psd, and ~.config/cinnamon-session/saved-session was empty.

Am I missing something here?

ewaller · 2016-01-21 22:22:34

Yes, I would say you can say that the issue is not in /etc.

How about ls -a ~
?

Ceipheed · 2016-01-22 16:34:28

[ceipheed@SatelliteArch ~]$ ls -a 
.              .bash_profile   .config          Documents      .eaglerc                           .gvfs          .mplayer  .themes
..             .bashrc         .conkyrc         Downloads      .esd_auth                          .ICEauthority  Music     Various Artists
.anthy         .cache          .conkyrc.backup  .dropbox       .face                              .icons         .nanorc   Videos
.arduino15     Carmina Burana  .dbus            Dropbox        Final Fantasy XIV - Before Meteor  .java          Pictures  .Xauthority
.bash_history  .cinnamon       Desktop          .dropbox-dist  .gnome                             .jssc          .pki      .xprofile
.bash_logout   .clamtk         .dmrc            .eagle         .gstreamer-0.10                    .local         .ssh      .xsession-errors

nothing out of the ordinary, as far as I can tell. ~.gnome only had a couple of chrome-related folders.

Ceipheed · 2016-01-29 17:37:54

So, no other ideas?

jasonwryan · 2016-01-29 18:16:19

What is in ~/.xprofile? And check your other system profile files.

Otherwise, this seems like the relevant section to test your broken user environment against:
https://github.com/linuxmint/mdm/blob/m … on.in#L149

Arch Linux

#1 2016-01-21 17:00:54

MDM messes with my system locale

#2 2016-01-21 17:10:07

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

#3 2016-01-21 22:15:00

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

#4 2016-01-21 22:22:34

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

#5 2016-01-22 16:34:28

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

#6 2016-01-29 17:37:54

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

#7 2016-01-29 18:16:19

Re: MDM messes with my system locale

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