Language per user setting

michi-zuri

Has anyone faced the issue of not being able to change the language for a user?

I started off installing the Budgie version in English US (default language). I then added a second user and tried to change just this user's language to French, but the GUI settings didn't really do anything to change the language, didn't even reliably register the change. I could change the regional settings for time, currency, page size etc., but not the interface language. This led me down a rabbit-hole. In the mean time I switched to Gnome (mainly because I got annoyed by budgie-screensaver) and this didn't solve the problem of not being able to switch the user language for my 2nd user (for my housemate). The GUI allowed me to change the system-wide language (through the button "Login Screen" so the default language for all users has now switched to French.

What I found on reddit (thanks daizehnd!, was that I needed to create a shadow copy of /usr/share/defaults/etc/pam.d/gdm-launch-environment as /etc/pam.d/gdm-launch-environment and change one line from auth required pam_env.so to auth required pam_env.so user_readenv=1 and add a ~/.pam_environment file for each user that shouldn't use the system-wide language. This actually worked for changing the language of the session both in the Gnome desktop environment, as well as in the tty. Many applications including Lollypop, the File browser, some terminal commands, etc switched to Dutch now (I choose a different language for every place I can set a language for debugging this situation). Some programs still ignore this setting and use the system-wide French instead, while others display in English, disregarding any language preference I set anywhere. The preference for Spanish has had no impact whatsoever that I could detect. For formatting I set de_CH, which is respected at least by the date +%A command and probably elsewhere.

Some debugging output from my terminal (within a gnome session):

~ 
❯ cat /etc/locale.conf 
LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8

~ 
❯ localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: n/a
      X11 Layout: ch
       X11 Model: pc104

~ 
❯ locale
LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_TIME=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_NAME="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

~ 
❯ locale --version
locale (Solus) 2.31
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Dit is vrije software; zie de programmatekst voor de kopieervoorwaarden.
Er is GEEN garantie, zelfs niet voor VERKOOPBAARHEID of GESCHIKTHEID
VOOR EEN BEPAALD DOEL.
Geschreven door Ulrich Drepper.

~ 
❯ cat .pam_environment 
LANGUAGE=nl
~ 
❯ cat /etc/pam.d/gdm-launch-environment | grep pam_env.so
auth     required       pam_env.so user_readenv=1

~ 
❯ date +%A
Freitag

What is the GUI for changing the language actually supposed to do? Is it changing a text configuraion file or some dconf entry, or something else? How can I check this change from the terminal?

Would be delighted for any input, to figure what is actually happening!

michi-zuri

Maybe this will help to understand what's happening:
When I run ❯ gnome-control-center -v
I get

(process:24830): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 13:52:29.045: gtk_style_context_add_provider_for_screen: assertion 'GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
13:52:29.0357                      GLib:    DEBUG: setenv()/putenv() are not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
13:52:29.0375      diagnostics-cc-panel:    DEBUG: ABRT vanished
13:52:29.0376           accountsservice:    DEBUG: Finding a graphical session for user 1000
13:52:29.0377           accountsservice:    DEBUG: Considering session '5'
13:52:29.0377           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: Seat still actively loading, so not setting loaded property
13:52:29.0378           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: Seat still actively loading, so not setting loaded property
13:52:29.0378           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: Seat loaded, so now setting loaded property
13:52:29.0378           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: user manager now loaded, proceeding with fetch user request for user with id 1000
13:52:29.0378           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: finding user with id 1000 state 2
13:52:29.0378           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: Looking for user with id 1000 in accounts service
13:52:29.0379           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: Found object path of user with id 1000: /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000
13:52:29.0379           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: finding user with id 1000 state 3
13:52:29.0379           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: user with id 1000 fetched
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: user killian is now loaded
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: user killian was not yet known, adding it
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: tracking user 'killian'
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: not yet loaded, so not emitting user-added signal
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: no pending users, trying to set loaded property
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: already loaded, so not setting loaded property
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: finished handling request for user with id 1000
13:52:29.0381           accountsservice:    DEBUG: ActUserManager: unrefing manager owned by fetch user request

When I then click on Language to open the dialog that allow chosing another language, these two lines are added to the terminal:

13:53:04.0234              GnomeDesktop: CRITICAL: gnome_get_country_from_code: assertion 'code != NULL' failed
13:53:04.0234              GnomeDesktop: CRITICAL: gnome_get_country_from_code: assertion 'code != NULL' failed

When I then select a language, nothing happens in the terminal until I click the Select button:

(gnome-control-center:24926): dconf-DEBUG: 13:57:20.789: change_fast
(gnome-control-center:24926): dconf-DEBUG: 13:57:20.789: change_notify: /system/locale/region
13:57:20.0805                      GLib: CRITICAL: g_regex_match_full: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
13:57:20.0805              GnomeDesktop:  WARNING: locale '(null)' isn't valid

Furthermore I tracked my home folder ~/ in git and found that changing the language had no effect on any file in my home directory, whereas changing the Formats locale, the /system/locale/region entry in dconf was updated accordingly.

So is this a bug in upstream Gnome? My next step would be to run a gnome linux distro in a VM and see what is supposed to happen when the user language is changed in gnome-control-center. It'll probably take a while until I get around to that. Any ideas are welcome in the mean time, how this could be debugged further.

Further to note: in ~/.pam_environment I can overwrite LANGUAGE and all LC_* environment values, but not the LANG variable. The LANG variable can however be overwritten by setting export LANG=nl_NL.utf8 in ~/.profile. I have no idea if this has any influence on the Gnome sesssion though.

To be continued.