System Locale [WORKAROUND SUPPLIED]

Question

Hi!
I have two Arch Linux systems up and running, and they both suffer from the same issue: the system locale is not set upon boot.
Normally I don't need it to be set, as all users locales are working. However, some of my cronjobs and daemons require the system locale to be correct.
One possible solution to this issue would probably be to set LANG in /etc/rc.local, but I'm after a permanent solution.
/etc/rc.conf:
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
# LOCALIZATION
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
LOCALE="sv_SE.UTF8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Stockholm"
KEYMAP="sv-latin1"
CONSOLEFONT="lat1-12"
CONSOLEMAP="8859-1"
USECOLOR="yes"
# HARDWARE
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
MODULES=(!pcspkr !snd-pcsp autofs4 acpi-cpufreq)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="yes"
# NETWORKING
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
HOSTNAME="neo"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
# This now requires the netcfg package
NETWORKS=(home)
# DAEMONS
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng @acpid @hal @network @net-profiles @crond @laptop-mode @fam @alsa @autofs @xinetd @sensors)
/etc/locale.gen:
sv_SE.UTF-8 UTF-8
Output from locale on system level after boot:
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=
Output from locale in my shell:
LANG=sv_SE.UTF8
LC_CTYPE="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_NUMERIC="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_TIME="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_COLLATE=C
LC_MONETARY="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_MESSAGES="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_PAPER="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_NAME="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_ADDRESS="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_TELEPHONE="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="sv_SE.UTF8"
LC_ALL=
Any help is appreciated
Last edited by irock (2009-10-31 11:00:35)

Answer 1

I've found a simple but ugly workaround for this issue now. Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf and everything will work as expected.
export LC_COLLATE="C"
export LANG="${LOCALE}"
My /etc/rc.conf now looks like this:
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
# LOCALIZATION
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
LOCALE="sv_SE.UTF8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Stockholm"
KEYMAP="sv-latin1"
CONSOLEFONT="lat1-12"
CONSOLEMAP="8859-1"
USECOLOR="yes"
export LC_COLLATE="C"
export LANG="${LOCALE}"
# HARDWARE
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
MODULES=(!pcspkr !snd-pcsp autofs4 acpi-cpufreq)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="yes"
# NETWORKING
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
HOSTNAME="neo"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
# This now requires the netcfg package
NETWORKS=(home)
# DAEMONS
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng @acpid @hal @network @net-profiles @crond @laptop-mode @fam
@alsa @autofs @xinetd @sensors @iptables)
As a side note, all info and warning messages during boot, after rc.sysinit invocation, is now properly translated into swedish (i.e when partitions are to be checked on the next reboot).
I now also remember I've had problems with file dialogs not showing åäö properly (i.e when saving a web page in ff), which no longer seems to be an issue.
Thing is that I've been running Arch Linux for the last 2 years, and now I realize that the system locale setting might have never worked. I still can't figure out where locales are set during boot... The /etc/rc.sysinit script says that it sets locale (and so does http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Boot), but in fact it does not! It just fixes /etc/profile* so login shells will have the proper locale set, while the system continue to run with no explicitly set locale.