Bug#756252: gnome-session: Doesn't set LANG

[Mike Hommey]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 09:38:10AM +0900, Mike Hommey wrote:
> Package: gnome-session
> Version: 3.12.1-3
> Severity: important
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> After upgrading gnome a few weeks ago, I noticed my terminal wasn't
> displaying non-ascii characters anymore.
> 
> This, in turn, is due to this:
> 
> $ locale
> LANG=
> LANGUAGE=en_US:en
> 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=
> 
> LANGUAGE is set, but LANG is not.
> 
> Looking at the process tree, I see that:
> - systemd doesn't have either set.
> - gdm3 doesn't have either set.
> - gdm-session-worker has LANGUAGE set.
> 
> So I'm assuming it's gdm-session-worker that sets LANGUAGE. It should
> set LANG too.

So, some more data points:
- the empty LANG and "en_US:en" LANGUAGE come from /etc/default/locale.
  Not sure how this got there, but adjusting things there does change what
  ends up set in gnome-session-worker, so I can set, for instance
  LANG=en_US.UTF-8.
- however, setting a *different* locale with the gnome control center
  than the one in /etc/default/locale doesn't do anything. That is, I
  set the language to japanese in the region&language control center
  box, and I'm still all in an english UI, with en_US.UTF-8 locale. (and
  yes, I do have the ja_JP.UTF-8 locale generated)

So I guess it all boils down to the Region&language configuration being
completely ignored.

Mike