Issues with locale

I have been getting errors about locale for quiet a while now, but the simple solutions didn’t change anything - and it didn’t seem to actually be an issue.

Today i tried to start pulseeffects and got the error

  $  pulseeffects
    terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
      what():  locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid
    Aborted (core dumped)

After that i found out that in my etc/ directory i don’t have /etc/locale.gen only /etc/locale.gen.pacnew but i can access /etc/locale.gen via nano. So what should i do now?

Not sure what the proper category is since an error with pulse prompted me to action but it doesn’T seem to be the originator of the problem, probably.

$ inxi --full --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = "en_GB:en_US",
        LC_ALL = (unset),
        LC_ADDRESS = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_NAME = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_MONETARY = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_PAPER = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_IDENTIFICATION = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_TELEPHONE = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_MEASUREMENT = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_TIME = "io_001.UTF-8",
        LC_COLLATE = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_NUMERIC = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LANG = "en_GB.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_GB.UTF-8").
System:    Kernel: 5.10.2-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.4 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MEDIONPC model: MS-7728 v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: E7728MLN.209 date: 12/22/2011 
Memory:    RAM: total: 15.62 GiB used: 8.3 GiB (53.1%) 
           RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2320 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 
           L2 cache: 6 MiB bogomips: 23955 
           Speed: 3097 MHz min/max: 1600/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3097 2: 3105 3: 3106 
           4: 3102 
           Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov constant_tsc 
           cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept est flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr 
           ht ibpb ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx 
           pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdtscp 
           rep_good sep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc 
           tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 
           bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1380 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: nvidia resolution: 
           1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1280x1024~60Hz s-dpi: 101 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.45.01 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1c20 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX] vendor: ASUSTeK 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fbc 
           Device-3: Bose Bose USB Audio type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus ID: 1-1.1:3 chip ID: 05a7:1020 
           Device-4: Thesycon System & Consulting D10 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio 
           bus ID: 2-1.1:3 chip ID: 152a:8750 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.2-2-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
           IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
           IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
           Device-2: IMC Networks Mediao 802.11n WLAN [Realtek RTL8191SU] type: USB driver: r8712u 
           bus ID: 2-1.6:6 chip ID: 13d3:3306 serial: <filter> 
           IF: wlp0s29u1u6 state: down mac: <filter> 
           WAN IP: <filter> 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 1.06 TiB (77.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> rev: 023 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0 size: 465.76 GiB 
           speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1H15 
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: CDDVDW SH-216AB rev: MD00 dev-links: cdrom 
           Features: speed: 48 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram 
           state: running 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 898.98 GiB used: 842.83 GiB (93.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 label: N/A 
           uuid: c9c07722-f3ef-4038-a3ef-f4803e917bde 
           ID-2: /run/media/jan/4AD42B71D42B5E87 size: 194.72 GiB used: 122.23 GiB (62.8%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb2 label: N/A uuid: 4AD42B71D42B5E87 
           ID-3: /run/media/jan/Daten size: 270.45 GiB used: 116.01 GiB (42.9%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb4 label: Daten uuid: 18DCF506DCF4DF46 
           ID-4: /run/media/jan/System-reserviert size: 100 MiB used: 65.6 MiB (65.6%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb1 label: System-reserviert uuid: E48225DD8225B4C8 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.19 GiB used: 61.8 MiB (0.4%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda2 label: N/A uuid: e055263f-df22-4160-9468-005831f77676 
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sdb3 size: 510 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A uuid: 3AA6701FA66FDA41 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 1-1.1:3 info: Bose Bose USB Audio type: Audio,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 1.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 05a7:1020 
           Device-2: 1-1.2:4 info: Holtek Ducky Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 04d9:0356 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 2-1.1:3 info: Thesycon System & Consulting D10 type: Audio 
           driver: snd-usb-audio interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 152a:8750 
           Device-2: 2-1.2:4 info: Logitech G600 Gaming Mouse type: Mouse,Keyboard 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 046d:c24a 
           serial: <filter> 
           Device-3: 2-1.5:5 info: Realtek RTS5182 Card Reader type: Mass Storage 
           driver: ums-realtek interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0bda:0184 
           serial: <filter> 
           Device-4: 2-1.6:6 info: IMC Networks Mediao 802.11n WLAN [Realtek RTL8191SU] 
           type: Network driver: r8712u interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 13d3:3306 
           serial: <filter> 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 45 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 25% 
Info:      Processes: 236 Uptime: 10h 24m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 
           Packages: pacman: 1501 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.0 running in: konsole inxi: 3.2.01

I haven’t had any such problems, but I realized I also didn’t have any locales set on /etc/locale.gen in my Gnome. Maybe it is set other way/place?

Maybe try to uncomment yours and running “locale-gen” like specified here and see if it makes a difference?

You definitively should have an /etc/locale.gen but if you haven’t got it, copy the pacnew one as it.

I’m wondering if this is a real locale? Can you run printenv | grep LC?

I did run locale-gen before, didn’T make a difference. I also did uncomment my language settings in locale.gen,pacnew. You mean just copy and rename locale.gen.pacnew to locale.gen?
The weird thing though is if i type in
nano /etc/locale.gen

i can open a file and the content is slightly different from when i do

nano /etc/locale.gen.pacnew

but when i check in dolphin, there is no file inbetween locale.conf and locale.gen.pacnew

$ printenv | grep LC
LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TIME=io_001.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8

i think the LC_TIME=io_001.UTF-8 might be because i changed my date format in kde to iso standard, i can’t find the setting atm though. That means my date is yyyy-mm-dd

Edit: I found it it is the time setting under regional settings/formats.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Pacnew_and_Pacsave

.pacnews are files created when devs intend to change or append new config variables in the config files of their apps, but without overwriting your actual one and possibly destroying your own customizations.

You are supposed to merge any changes to the original file, if needed. And then remove those .pacnew files. But of course, the ones counting for real are the original ones and not the .pacnews.

Try to run this and then open again pulseffects, in addition to having a proper generated locale, that should rule out if it really is a locale thing or not:

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

Which desktop?

If KDE, checkout this thread or this one.

kde-system-locale-settings

Locale will update /etc/locale.gen.
When selected, notice the Add button. There is also a context menu (right-click) on each added language.

Regional Settings will update files in your home directory like $HOME/.config/plasma-localerc. When selected, if you hover over a language, notice symbols on the right that can be used to remove the language or make it the default.

I use this command often to list changed files:

find -newermt '1 minute ago`

If they are system files, it needs to be changed to something like:

find / \( -path /dev -o -path /proc -o -path /sys \) -a -prune -o -newermt '1 minute ago'
1 Like

Yes, i am running kde

After i use that command i am able to start pulseeffects from the terminal.

I changed the io_001.UTF-8 to the german setting in regional settings and pulseeffects starts now without problems and the locale is no longer lsited as an issue

$ inxi --full --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host
System:    Kernel: 5.10.2-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.4 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MEDIONPC model: MS-7728 v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: E7728MLN.209 date: 12/22/2011 
Memory:    RAM: total: 15.62 GiB used: 3.13 GiB (20.0%) 
           RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2320 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 
           L2 cache: 6 MiB bogomips: 23953 
           Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: 1600/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1596 3: 1596 
           4: 1596 
           Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov constant_tsc 
           cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept est flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr 
           ht ibpb ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx 
           pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdtscp 
           rep_good sep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc 
           tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 
           bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1380 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: nvidia resolution: 
           1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1280x1024~60Hz s-dpi: 101 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.45.01 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1c20 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX] vendor: ASUSTeK 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fbc 
           Device-3: Bose Bose USB Audio type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus ID: 1-1.1:3 chip ID: 05a7:1020 
           Device-4: Thesycon System & Consulting D10 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio 
           bus ID: 2-1.1:3 chip ID: 152a:8750 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.2-2-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
           IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
           IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
           Device-2: IMC Networks Mediao 802.11n WLAN [Realtek RTL8191SU] type: USB driver: r8712u 
           bus ID: 2-1.6:6 chip ID: 13d3:3306 serial: <filter> 
           IF: wlp0s29u1u6 state: down mac: <filter> 
           WAN IP: <filter> 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 1.06 TiB (77.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> rev: 023 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0 size: 465.76 GiB 
           speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1H15 
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: CDDVDW SH-216AB rev: MD00 dev-links: cdrom 
           Features: speed: 48 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram 
           state: running 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 898.98 GiB used: 842.74 GiB (93.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 label: N/A 
           uuid: c9c07722-f3ef-4038-a3ef-f4803e917bde 
           ID-2: /run/media/jan/4AD42B71D42B5E87 size: 194.72 GiB used: 122.23 GiB (62.8%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb2 label: N/A uuid: 4AD42B71D42B5E87 
           ID-3: /run/media/jan/Daten size: 270.45 GiB used: 116.01 GiB (42.9%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb4 label: Daten uuid: 18DCF506DCF4DF46 
           ID-4: /run/media/jan/System-reserviert size: 100 MiB used: 65.6 MiB (65.6%) fs: ntfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb1 label: System-reserviert uuid: E48225DD8225B4C8 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.19 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda2 label: N/A uuid: e055263f-df22-4160-9468-005831f77676 
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sdb3 size: 510 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A uuid: 3AA6701FA66FDA41 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 1-1.1:3 info: Bose Bose USB Audio type: Audio,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 1.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 05a7:1020 
           Device-2: 1-1.2:4 info: Holtek Ducky Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 04d9:0356 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 2-1.1:3 info: Thesycon System & Consulting D10 type: Audio 
           driver: snd-usb-audio interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 152a:8750 
           Device-2: 2-1.2:4 info: Logitech G600 Gaming Mouse type: Mouse,Keyboard 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 046d:c24a 
           serial: <filter> 
           Device-3: 2-1.5:5 info: Realtek RTS5182 Card Reader type: Mass Storage 
           driver: ums-realtek interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0bda:0184 
           serial: <filter> 
           Device-4: 2-1.6:6 info: IMC Networks Mediao 802.11n WLAN [Realtek RTL8191SU] 
           type: Network driver: r8712u interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 13d3:3306 
           serial: <filter> 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s 
           chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 35 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 8% 
Info:      Processes: 245 Uptime: 2h 39m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 
           Packages: pacman: 1501 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.0 running in: konsole inxi: 3.2.01

Edit: But if i change it back again i have the same error again, is there no way to keep the iso standard without getting errors?

Edit2: Also i guess that makes this a KDE Problem now since i am setting lcoale via KDE

Check this out, a report for this issue, 5 years in the making.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=340982

There are some workarounds inside, or kind off, but nothing completely satisfactory it seems.

By complete accident i found a different solution i left the locale same as everything else as de_DE. But if you right click the digital clock and “configure digital clock” you can set iso date as date format.

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