Arch Linux

dolfsquare

Member

Registered: 2019-08-09

Posts: 2

[Solved]locale set to POSIX on Xorg, but not on tty

I recently bought a new laptop, and installed Archlinux (as I've been using it for quite a time on my previous computer). Basic install, then graphic stack: Xorg, i3, nothing special. However, my locale doesn't work when I'm on Xorg: LANG is not set and LC_* env variables fallback to POSIX.

On tty:

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

In a terminal emulator on Xorg (any term emulator):

$ locale
LANG=
LC_CTYPE="POSIX"
LC_NUMERIC="POSIX"
LC_TIME="POSIX"
LC_COLLATE="POSIX"
LC_MONETARY="POSIX"
LC_MESSAGES="POSIX"
LC_PAPER="POSIX"
LC_NAME="POSIX"
LC_ADDRESS="POSIX"
LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX"
LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX"
LC_ALL=

I don't have a local locale.conf file that could override /etc/locale.conf.

$ cat /etc/locale.conf
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8

In /etc/locale.gen the appropriate locale is uncommented. locale-gen command properly generates my locale, and localedef --list-archive outputs it as well.

Also, this may be unrelated, but unicode characters (like é or ç) are not displayed on QTerminal (not even a blank square; if I "erase" the absence of character that I just typed, it just erases two characters from the prompt). They work on xterm, though, even if the locale is still POSIX.

I checked this thread but this is not related either, as the problem in this situation came from zsh configuration. I don't think this is related to my shell anyway, I tried to chsh to /bin/sh, then logout and login back, and this doesn't change a thing.

In graphical applications, like Firefox, unicode characters work perfectly.

I'm out of ideas, and I may be abouth to throw my shiny new laptop through the window. I greatly appreciate your help, folks! :)

(PS: even though my locale is canadian english, I'm a french speaker, so don't mind my broken english)

Last edited by dolfsquare (2019-08-09 20:10:22)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,515

Re: [Solved]locale set to POSIX on Xorg, but not on tty

How are you starting i3 ?

If through startx , post ~/.xinitrc

The qterminal / unicode issue might be related to the recent pango update, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=248032

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

dolfsquare

Member

Registered: 2019-08-09

Posts: 2

Re: [Solved]locale set to POSIX on Xorg, but not on tty

@Lone_Wolf I'm using Ly, but you actually gave me the idea to try loading i3 with xinit. And it works!

As it turns out, Ly's X setup is kinda broken, as it doesn't source anything except ~/.xsession. It is weird, because Wayland's equivalent setup file sources the needed files. So jokes on me for using a very experimental display manager. I added /etc/profile to Ly's configuration, and it works. It also fixes qterminal issues with Unicode.

Thank your for your suggestion!