Locale Problem Kubuntu 23.04 / Thunderbird 102.10.0

sophocles99

4/24/24, 12:29 PM

I'm using Kubuntu 23.04 and Thunderbird 102.10.0 and am experiencing some inconsistencies regarding the date format used in the list of emails. In Thunderbird the dates are displayed in US format with month first, but in Thunderbird Settings under Date and Time Formatting I have 'Application locale: English (United Kingdom)' selected. In Kubuntu, System Settings > Regional Settings > Region & Language, Language is set as British English and Time is set as Standard format for British English. However in System Settings > Regional Settings > Date & Time, the date under the calendar is displayed in US format.

Typing locale gives the following output:

LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

I tried sudo update-locale LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8 but after reboot locale still says LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8 and the same behaviour still occurs in Thunderbird and Regional Settings > Date & Time. The contents of /etc/default/locale is:

#  File generated by update-locale
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8

but this seems to be ignored or overridden for some reason. I also tried sudo apt install --reinstall locales, and also sudo locale-gen after editing /etc/locale.gen to remove the # before en_GB.UTF-8.

I can achieve the desired results with sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8 - Thunderbird then displays emails with British date format (the second option in Thunderbird Settings under Date and Time Formatting then reads 'Regional settings locale: English (United Kingdom)' but I still have 'Application locale: English (United Kingdom)' selected as before anyway). All lines in locale then read "en_GB.UTF-8". However this sledgehammer solution surely shouldn't be necessary. Does anyone know why Thunderbird settings and sudo update-locale LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8 might not be working as expected?

101

1 + 0

thunderbird

locale

kubuntu

Score:1

Ubuntu

Gunnar Hjalmarsson

4/24/24, 1:44 PM

Based on the locale output, I suspect that you have had some other desktop environment but Kubuntu previously, and in connection with that the file ~/.pam_environment was created. That file does not make sense in Kubuntu, though, so my advice is simple: Delete ~/.pam_environment

+ 2

sophocles99

4/24/24, 5:13 PM

Brilliant, thank you, that worked perfectly. All `locale` options are now set to `en_GB.UTF-8` and Thunderbird and `update-locale` are working as expected. You are right, I had installed Ubuntu 23.04 (with default Gnome desktop environment) and then installed KDE.

Gunnar Hjalmarsson

4/24/24, 5:17 PM

@sophocles99: Good. Then can you please mark the issue as resolved by clicking the gray check mark to the left of my answer.

Elon Musk

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EN: Locale Problem Kubuntu 23.04 / Thunderbird 102.10.0

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