Mixed Languages in Kubuntu

Linux Troubleshooting

July 1st 2023

Recently I noticed on my laptop that the language setting have been mixed with the regional settings. Some text are on English, and some are on Norwegian:

The localectl settings in CLI states it is en_US-UTF8:

user@computer:~$ localectl
   System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
                  LC_NUMERIC=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_TIME=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_MONETARY=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_PAPER=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_NAME=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_ADDRESS=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_TELEPHONE=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_MEASUREMENT=nb_NO.UTF-8
                  LC_IDENTIFICATION=nb_NO.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: n/a
      X11 Layout: us
       X11 Model: pc105

But the environment variable is saying nb_NO-UTF8:

user@computer:~$ echo $LANG
nb_NO.UTF-8

So i just had to find out where that environment variable is set so I can change it to american english. I found it by typing “grep -R "LANG=" .*” under my home directory:

user@computer:~$ grep -R "LANG=" .*
./.config/plasma-localerc:LANG=nb_NO.UTF-8
^C

Plasma is the GUI used in Kubuntu. All I had to do was edit that file and reboot the computer:

wlindberg@elenor:~$ nano .config/plasma-localerc

[Formats]
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

user@computer:~$ sudo halt --reboot

Now all the text is back to american english again:

user$computer:~$ echo $LANG
en_US.UTF-8