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McGee
Asked: 2012-05-08 08:46:45 +0800 CST

How do I change the language via a terminal?

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Using system settings I changed my language to Arabic and deleted the English language from the settings. Then the computer lagged and it logged out - now I can't log back in because the login is in Arabic.

So is there a way to default my language via terminal, default the login password language, or login via terminal which is still in English. I only have access to guest and a terminal.

I changed the pasword to something that could be translated into arabic http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword - then loged in and used system settings to default.

command-line language

2 Answers

  1. Edit two files:

    1. sudoedit /etc/default/locale:

      LANG="en_US"
LANGUAGE="en_US:en"

    2. sudoedit ~/.pam_environment:

      LANG=en_US
LANGUAGE=en_US

    Logout and Login or Reboot.

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  2. In order to get back to English, I had to change my locale in 3 places:

    1. /etc/default/locale

      by running this command:

      $ sudo update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LANGUAGE= LC_MESSAGES= LC_COLLATE= LC_CTYPE=

    2. ~/.config/plasma-localerc and ~/.config/plasma-locale-settings.sh

      By going to my KDE settings / Regional Settings / Language

    And reboot.

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