Arch Linux

k0r3

Member

Registered: 2023-10-20

Posts: 12

bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

Im noticing this error since I have changed a couple formats to my language. I run bsdtar in the terminal and get the error mentioned in the subject.
Note: Previously I had only de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8 and en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 enabled in /etc/locale.gen - while trying to fix it I had additionally added de_DE ISO-8859-1  de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15  en_US ISO-8859-1, sadly without success.
Output of:

grep -v '^#' /etc/locale.gen        
cat /etc/locale.conf
localectl
env | grep '\(LANG\|LC\)'

de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8  
de_DE ISO-8859-1  
de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15  
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8  
en_US ISO-8859-1  
LANG=en_US.utf8
LANGUAGE=en_US.utf8
LC_COLLATE=C
LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
System Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8
               LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_COLLATE=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
               LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
    VC Keymap: de-latin1-nodeadkeys
   X11 Layout: de
    X11 Model: pc105
  X11 Variant: deadgraveacute
LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_DE.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.utf8
LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US.utf8
LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_DE.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_DE.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_DE.UTF-8

Configured via: https://wiki.archlinux.de/title/Arch_Li … ch_stellen and via UI of KDE Plasma, that I am using:
https://i.imgur.com/6VxKTA3.png

Last edited by V1del (2023-11-07 15:24:36)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,234

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

you have a bunch of en_de locales which are illegal. Are you using Plasma? It's locale settings wizard allows some illegal combinations due to the underlying Qt libs, see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Locale … g_language

k0r3

Member

Registered: 2023-10-20

Posts: 12

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

Thank you, yes I had noticed there are some en_DE combinations in there.
I tried to follow https://xyne.dev/projects/locale-en_xx/#usage and if i got it right, added for my case en_DE.UTF-8@POSIX to /etc/locale.gen, then ran locale-gen again.

sudo locale-gen          
Generating locales...
  de_DE.UTF-8... done
  en_US.UTF-8... done
  en_DE.UTF-8@POSIX...[error] cannot open locale definition file `en_DE@POSIX': No such file or directory

Did I do it wrong?
Note: I have installed https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/locale-en_xx

EDIT: I think I got it now:
In /etc/locale.conf I set LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX (instead of en_DE.UTF-8 suggested by https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Locale … _language) and LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8.
In /etc/locale.gen I added en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX UTF-8.

LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX
LANGUAGE=en_US.utf8
LC_COLLATE=C
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
#LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Then ran locale-gen again and resourced /etc/locale.conf.

locale-gen
. /etc/locale.conf

Now bsdtar does not show the error anymore, does it look correct?

Last edited by k0r3 (2023-11-07 15:14:59)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,234

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

The XX should be taken literally there and if you wanted to use that you'd use en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX literally.

k0r3

Member

Registered: 2023-10-20

Posts: 12

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

Ok, so would it work this way? All I wanted to achieve is that I can use my countries formats for LC_MESSAGES etc, while still having the system language to English.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,234

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

That's for you to decide, you could also just use de_DE for LC_MESSAGES and simply en_US for LANG and LANGUAGES.

k0r3

Member

Registered: 2023-10-20

Posts: 12

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

Got it, it seems the changes I made to locale.conf do not persist between reboots. /etc/locale.conf is still correct but apparently not sourced on boot, did I miss anything?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,234

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

sourced by what? You can change/export these wherever you want, it might be overriden/sourced by your shell, or by your desktop environment (in which case I suggest you read the wiki link posted earlier and remove plasma's custom locale file, so the /etc/locale defaults get picked up instead)

k0r3

Member

Registered: 2023-10-20

Posts: 12

Re: bsdtar: Failed to set default locale

Ah, I missed that one, now I understand, thanks!