Bug#159843: locales: locale selection with readline frontend broken
Package: locales
Version: 2.2.5-11.1
Severity: normal
I imagine this is properly a debconf bug, but I have noticed it on
several systems and I cannot come up with a sane workaround, short of
changing how the configuration script works until debconf can be
fixed.
/* I have filed a corresponding bug against debconf: bug#159841 */
It appears that the readline debconf frontend goes bonkers when
there's more than about 36 things to choose from in a list of
checkbox-like options. (36 is just an estimate -- 26 alphabetics plus
ten numbers.)
The locales configuration script presents a list which is +much+
longer than that. It appears that the readline frontend interprets the
individual characters in the response, although many of the options
have multi-character labels.
Below is an excerpt of a typescript (from the upgrade of this machine
to Woody). You'll notice that the selection given to the program was
"75 76 125 126 127 117 118 119 p 47 48 42" but it was interpreted as
just the individual characters in this list, i.e. "1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 p".
[1] ar_DZ ISO-8859-6
[2] ar_EG ISO-8859-6
[4] ar_IQ ISO-8859-6
[5] ar_JO ISO-8859-6
[6] ar_KW ISO-8859-6
[7] ar_LB ISO-8859-6
[8] ar_LY ISO-8859-6
[9] ar_MA ISO-8859-6
[p] pl_PL ISO-8859-2
pro the desired list
[75] fi_FI ISO-8859-1
[76] fi_FI@euro ISO-8859-15
[125] sv_FI ISO-8859-1
[126] sv_FI@euro ISO-8859-15
[127] sv_SE ISO-8859-1
[117] ru_RU ISO-8859-5
[118] ru_RU.KOI8-R KOI8-R
[119] ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8
[p] pl_PL ISO-8859-2
[47] en_US ISO-8859-1
[48] en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
[42] en_IE@euro ISO-8859-15
The workaround I would suggest is to simply suggest to edit the file
by hand if the readline frontend is in use. (Don't know in detail how
hard this is, but it's the best I can come up with.)
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter,
/* era */
I've filed a bug against debconf as well: bug#
<...>
Configuring Locales
-------------------
You can choose locales to be generated by selecting locales you want. Selected
locales will be saved to `/etc/locale.gen' file. You can also manually edit
this file. You need to run `locale-gen' after edit the file.
[More]
[a] af_ZA ISO-8859-1
[q] ar_AE ISO-8859-6
[x] ar_BH ISO-8859-6
[1] ar_DZ ISO-8859-6
[2] ar_EG ISO-8859-6
[3] ar_IN UTF-8
[4] ar_IQ ISO-8859-6
[5] ar_JO ISO-8859-6
[6] ar_KW ISO-8859-6
[7] ar_LB ISO-8859-6
[8] ar_LY ISO-8859-6
[9] ar_MA ISO-8859-6
[10] ar_OM ISO-8859-6
[11] ar_QA ISO-8859-6
[12] ar_SA ISO-8859-6
[13] ar_SD ISO-8859-6
[14] ar_SY ISO-8859-6
[15] ar_TN ISO-8859-6
[16] ar_YE ISO-8859-6
[b] be_BY CP1251
[17] bg_BG CP1251
[18] br_FR ISO-8859-1
[19] bs_BA ISO-8859-2
[c] ca_ES ISO-8859-1
[More]
[20] ca_ES@euro ISO-8859-15
[21] cs_CZ ISO-8859-2
[22] cy_GB ISO-8859-14
[d] da_DK ISO-8859-1
[23] de_AT ISO-8859-1
[24] de_AT@euro ISO-8859-15
[25] de_BE ISO-8859-1
[26] de_BE@euro ISO-8859-15
[27] de_CH ISO-8859-1
[28] de_DE ISO-8859-1
[29] de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
[30] de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15
[31] de_LU ISO-8859-1
[32] de_LU@euro ISO-8859-15
[e] el_GR ISO-8859-7
[33] el_GR.UTF-8 UTF-8
[34] en_AU ISO-8859-1
[35] en_BW ISO-8859-1
[36] en_CA ISO-8859-1
[37] en_DK ISO-8859-1
[38] en_GB ISO-8859-1
[39] en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
[40] en_HK ISO-8859-1
[41] en_IE ISO-8859-1
[More]
[42] en_IE@euro ISO-8859-15
[43] en_IN UTF-8
[44] en_NZ ISO-8859-1
[45] en_PH ISO-8859-1
[46] en_SG ISO-8859-1
[47] en_US ISO-8859-1
[48] en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
[49] en_ZA ISO-8859-1
[50] en_ZW ISO-8859-1
[51] es_AR ISO-8859-1
[52] es_BO ISO-8859-1
[53] es_CL ISO-8859-1
[54] es_CO ISO-8859-1
[55] es_CR ISO-8859-1
[56] es_DO ISO-8859-1
[57] es_EC ISO-8859-1
[58] es_ES ISO-8859-1
[59] es_ES@euro ISO-8859-15
[60] es_GT ISO-8859-1
[61] es_HN ISO-8859-1
[62] es_MX ISO-8859-1
[63] es_NI ISO-8859-1
[64] es_PA ISO-8859-1
[65] es_PE ISO-8859-1
[More]
[66] es_PR ISO-8859-1
[67] es_PY ISO-8859-1
[68] es_SV ISO-8859-1
[69] es_US ISO-8859-1
[70] es_UY ISO-8859-1
[71] es_VE ISO-8859-1
[72] et_EE ISO-8859-1
[73] eu_ES ISO-8859-1
[74] eu_ES@euro ISO-8859-15
[f] fa_IR.UTF-8 UTF-8
[75] fi_FI ISO-8859-1
[76] fi_FI@euro ISO-8859-15
[77] fo_FO ISO-8859-1
[78] fr_BE ISO-8859-1
[79] fr_BE@euro ISO-8859-15
[80] fr_CA ISO-8859-1
[81] fr_CH ISO-8859-1
[82] fr_FR ISO-8859-1
[83] fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8
[84] fr_FR@euro ISO-8859-15
[85] fr_LU ISO-8859-1
[86] fr_LU@euro ISO-8859-15
[g] ga_IE ISO-8859-1
[87] ga_IE@euro ISO-8859-15
[More]
[88] gl_ES ISO-8859-1
[89] gl_ES@euro ISO-8859-15
[90] gv_GB ISO-8859-1
[h] he_IL ISO-8859-8
[91] hi_IN.UTF-8 UTF-8
[92] hr_HR ISO-8859-2
[93] hu_HU ISO-8859-2
[i] id_ID ISO-8859-1
[94] is_IS ISO-8859-1
[95] it_CH ISO-8859-1
[96] it_IT ISO-8859-1
[97] it_IT@euro ISO-8859-15
[98] iw_IL ISO-8859-8
[j] ja_JP.EUC-JP EUC-JP
[99] ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
[k] ka_GE GEORGIAN-PS
[100] kl_GL ISO-8859-1
[101] ko_KR.EUC-KR EUC-KR
[102] ko_KR.UTF-8 UTF-8
[103] kw_GB ISO-8859-1
[l] lt_LT ISO-8859-13
[104] lv_LV ISO-8859-13
[m] mi_NZ ISO-8859-13
[105] mk_MK ISO-8859-5
[More]
[106] mr_IN.UTF-8 UTF-8
[107] ms_MY ISO-8859-1
[108] mt_MT ISO-8859-3
[n] nl_BE ISO-8859-1
[109] nl_BE@euro ISO-8859-15
[110] nl_NL ISO-8859-1
[111] nl_NL@euro ISO-8859-15
[112] nn_NO ISO-8859-1
[113] no_NO ISO-8859-1
[o] oc_FR ISO-8859-1
[p] pl_PL ISO-8859-2
[114] pt_BR ISO-8859-1
[115] pt_PT ISO-8859-1
[116] pt_PT@euro ISO-8859-15
[r] ro_RO ISO-8859-2
[117] ru_RU ISO-8859-5
[118] ru_RU.KOI8-R KOI8-R
[119] ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8
[120] ru_UA KOI8-U
[s] sk_SK ISO-8859-2
[121] sl_SI ISO-8859-2
[122] sq_AL ISO-8859-1
[123] sr_YU ISO-8859-2
[124] sr_YU@cyrillic ISO-8859-5
[More]
[125] sv_FI ISO-8859-1
[126] sv_FI@euro ISO-8859-15
[127] sv_SE ISO-8859-1
[t] ta_IN UTF-8
[128] te_IN UTF-8
[129] tg_TJ KOI8-T
[130] th_TH TIS-620
[131] tl_PH ISO-8859-1
[132] tr_TR ISO-8859-9
[u] uk_UA KOI8-U
[133] ur_PK UTF-8
[134] uz_UZ ISO-8859-1
[v] vi_VN.UTF-8 UTF-8
[w] wa_BE ISO-8859-1
[135] wa_BE@euro ISO-8859-15
[y] yi_US CP1255
[z] zh_CN GB2312
[136] zh_CN.GB18030 GB18030
[137] zh_CN.GBK GBK
[138] zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8
[139] zh_HK BIG5-HKSCS
[140] zh_HK.UTF-8 UTF-8
[141] zh_TW BIG5
[142] zh_TW.EUC-TW EUC-TW
[More]
[143] zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8
(Type in the letters of the items you want to select, separated by spaces.)
Select locales to be generated. 75 76 125 126 127 117 118 119 p 47 48 42
Many packages in Debian use locales to display text in the correct language for
users. The default is C but you can change this if you're not a native English
speaker.
Note: This will reflect the language for your whole system. If you're running a
multi-user system where not all of your users speak the language of your
choice, then they will run into difficulties and you might want to leave "C" as
the default locale.
These choices are based on which locales you have chosen to generate.
l. Leave alone
n. None
c. C
a. ar_DZ
b. ar_EG
d. ar_IQ
e. ar_JO
f. ar_KW
g. ar_LB
h. ar_LY
i. ar_MA
[More]
p. pl_PL
Which locale should be the default in the system environment? [l] c
Selecting previously deselected package cpp-2.95.
(Reading database ... 31939 files and directories currently installed.)
<...>
Replacing files in old package netbase ...
Preparing to replace locales 2.1.3-20 (using .../locales_2.2.5-10_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement locales ...
Preparing to replace libc6 2.1.3-20 (using .../libc6_2.2.5-10_i386.deb) ...
<...>
Setting up binutils (2.12.90.0.1-4) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (Dialog frontend will not work on a dumb terminal, an emacs shell buffer, or without a controlling terminal.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Setting up locales (2.2.5-10) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/locale.alias ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (Dialog frontend will not work on a dumb terminal, an emacs shell buffer, or without a controlling terminal.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Generating locales...
Generation complete.
Setting up cpp-2.95 (2.95.4-7) ...
<...>
-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Kernel Version: Linux there.afraid.org 2.2.17 #1 Sun Jun 25 09:24:41 EST 2000 i586 unknown
Versions of the packages locales depends on:
ii debconf 1.0.32 Debian configuration management system
ii libc6 2.2.5-11.1 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
^^^ (Provides virtual package glibc-2.2.5-11.1)
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