gnome-language-selector crashed with DBusException in call_blocking(): org.freedesktop.Accounts.Error.Failed: 'bg_BG.UTF-8' is not a valid locale name

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

On 2012-02-13 06:32, Martin Pitt wrote on bug 931060:
> Gunnar Hjalmarsson [2012-02-13 3:01 -0000]:
>> It's the user_locale_validate() function in
>> accountsservice/src/user.c that caused this crash. Is there a simple
>> way to make setlocale() instantly aware of newly generated locales?
>> If not I guess that playing with 'locale -a' in
>> user_locale_validate() would be safer than calling setlocale().
>
> I don't know off-hand myself. My guess is that libc reads them at
> program startup, so somehow you'd need to convince it to re-read it.
>
> But that locale -a workaround wouldn't help language-selector, as you
> still couldn't actually set the locale for language-selector itself or
> the session, you need to relogin in any case.

Actually I think it would help. The moment that currently fails is accountsservice's writing to its keyfile and ~/.pam_environment. So now, when you just have installed a new language, and wants to use a locale of that language for regional formats, you first need to log out/login to be able to accomplish the writing, and then log out/login again to make the new setting part of the actual environment.

I checked the glibc source code, and it's not currently possible to reload locale-archive from a running program. So we do need to call out to locale -a.

The proposed change in accountsservice should fix this bug.

However, the example box on the "Regional formats" tab in language-selector depends on locale.setlocale() in Python, and neither that function has access to just generated locales, so the box shows an error message (se attachment). OTOH, the locale is set properly, and the program does not crash. Also, if you close language-selector and re-open it, the example box is filled as expected.

With the proposed change to language-selector, the error message on the screenshot would instead read:

  [ Failed to apply the 'fr_FR.UTF-8' format
  choice. The examples may show up if you
  close and re-open Language Support. ]

This bug was fixed in the package accountsservice - 0.6.15-2ubuntu8

---------------
accountsservice (0.6.15-2ubuntu8) precise; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/0010-set-language.patch:
    - Call for setlocale() in the user_locale_validate() function in
      src/user.c replaced with 'locale -a' to allow a newly generated
      locale to be instantly used for regional formats (LP: #930785).
 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:43:00 +0100

This bug was fixed in the package language-selector - 0.71

---------------
language-selector (0.71) precise; urgency=low

  [ Gunnar Hjalmarsson ]
  * LanguageSelector/gtk/GtkLanguageSelector.py:
    Modified wording of the error message shown if the example box
    fails to apply the current locale (LP: #930785).

  [ Martin Pitt ]
  * data/pkg_depends: Drop myspell-ru, we have hunspell-ru now.
  * data/pkg_depends: Add cmap-adobe-* packages for ghostscript. (LP: #496012)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Fri, 02 Mar 2012 06:54:37 +0100

My Ubuntu12.04 installation has language-selector package v 0.79 and still crashes with the message:
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 651, in call_blocking
     message, timeout)
 DBusException: org.freedesktop.Accounts.Error.Failed: running '/usr/share/language-tools/save-to-pam-env' failed: no output

Typing latin characters in the terminal yelds question marks, na typing 'locale' outputs:
LANG=
LANGUAGE=
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=

My ~/.pam_environment has:
LANGUAGE=en
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_TIME=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_NAME=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=pt_BR.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=pt_BR.UTF-8

Any other info I can check on my system to help?

Gabriel,

Your problem seems not to be related to this bug report, which has been closed for over a year.

Can you please file a new bug about your problem. Do so by opening a terminal window and type:

  ubuntu-bug language-selector

In addition to the info you already posted, please also let us know what the command

  locale -a

outputs.