Installed a new Thunderbird along with language pack, but new language ain't there.

mark_alfred · 07-20-2017, 12:26 AM

I run Debian 9 (stable, aka Stretch). I decided to upgrade Thunderbird (to try and solve some other problem) from Sid's sources; so, I compiled the source from Sid for Stretch. It installed with no problem and works well. I also installed a language pack for British English (so that "color" will be "colour" --> the former spelling just looks too much like the word "colon" to me). However, Thunderbird still shows "color".

I installed thunderbird_52.2.1-4_amd64.deb along with thunderbird-l10n-en-gb_52.2.1-4_all.deb. Also, I have installed hunspell, and hunspell-en-ca and hunspell-en-gb, but this just gave me spell check dictionaries rather than correcting the spelling on the actual Thunderbird program.

Habitual · 07-20-2017, 08:06 AM

Might be .thunderbird/profile dependant?
Have you tried a clean, or new one?

Just saying.

mark_alfred · 07-21-2017, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Habitual

Might be .thunderbird/profile dependant?
Have you tried a clean, or new one?

Just saying.

I assume you mean deleting the .thunderbird file. No, I haven't. It likely would be fine to try, but the idea spooks me a bit.

I notice that all the programs have en-us spellings in spite of Debian presumably obtaining the locale (Canada) in the initial set-up (the keyboard was set to en-us though, which is typically what's used). I recall some time ago that I did manage, when I was using Vector Linux, to have en-gb set up (I don't think en-ca was recognized by most programs). That may be a part of the problem, in that Canada is simply too small-fry to be acknowledged.

Quote:

mark@debian:~$ locale
LANG=en_CA.utf8
LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
LC_CTYPE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_CA.utf8"
LC_TIME="en_CA.utf8"
LC_COLLATE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MONETARY="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_CA.utf8"
LC_PAPER="en_CA.utf8"
LC_NAME="en_CA.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_CA.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_CA.utf8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_CA.utf8"
LC_ALL=
mark@debian:~$

Perhaps if I could change LANG and LANGUAGE to en_GB, though some British spellings are off from what I'm used to (Canada is kinda in the middle of US and British spellings, though it's closer to British spellings than US spellings).

Still, I don't even think this should be an issue with Thunderbird. The language packs are there, yet I'm not sure how to get them working (they are supposedly enabled -- see attached photo).

Well, it's almost nine in the morning. So, I'll look at this later, since it's time to crack open a brewski and watch the Beachcombers.

mark_alfred · 07-21-2017, 08:21 AM

Tried the following:

Code:

root@debian:/home/mark# export LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
root@debian:/home/mark# locale
LANG=en_CA.utf8
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
LC_CTYPE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_CA.utf8"
LC_TIME="en_CA.utf8"
LC_COLLATE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MONETARY="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_CA.utf8"
LC_PAPER="en_CA.utf8"
LC_NAME="en_CA.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_CA.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_CA.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_CA.utf8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_CA.utf8"
LC_ALL=

I initially tried changing the LANG parameter, but that changed everything. So, I went with language. I'll try rebooting to see if there's any difference (I expect not)... ETA: no, that failed. It went back to the default. It's a misplaced idea.

mark_alfred · 07-21-2017, 10:40 AM

I searched and found on another forum how I had successfully done this some years ago, and tried the same thing with this current version of Thunderbird that I have. I opened the config editor in Thunderbird (Preferences -> Advanced -> General), and searched for the entry "general.useragent.locale" and set its value to en-GB. This had worked in the past, but no luck this time. Not sure what to try.

Habitual · 07-21-2017, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

I assume you mean deleting the .thunderbird file.

Code:

if [ backups = true ]]  
rm -fr ~/.thunderbird
else
mv ~/.thunderbird ~/.thunderbird.org
fi

I use .org to signify original

mark_alfred · 07-21-2017, 01:50 PM

Thanks for the script. Rather than use it, I just dumped the .thunderbird file in the Trash bin, and then opened up Thunderbird. My email was gone and it asked me to set up my address again. I skipped that and checked to see if the language had changed (IE, if stuff like "color" was now spelled as "colour"), and it wasn't. It was still in en-US, in spite of the English (GB) language packs being present. So, I closed Thunderbird, got rid of the newly created .thunderbird file, and restored the old one (my email and stuff is now back as well).

AwesomeMachine · 07-21-2017, 07:00 PM

The language pack just refers to spelling and window labels. The actual web content remains unchanged.

mark_alfred · 07-21-2017, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwesomeMachine

The language pack just refers to spelling and window labels. The actual web content remains unchanged.

Precisely what I'm referring to. See the attachment in the opening post.

AwesomeMachine · 07-21-2017, 10:05 PM

Perhaps the language pack refers only to spelling. See is you can spell colour, and whether it gets marked. In GB both color and colour are considered acceptable.

mark_alfred · 07-22-2017, 12:45 AM

The language pack is not meant as a spell-checker for email that I type. That was provided by the package hunspell-en-ca (the language pack was installed at the same time as Thunderbird, and hunspell was installed later. I did not have a spell-check until I installed hunspell). ETA: I also installed hunspell-en-gb, and when under Preferences --> Composition --> Language, I choose "English (United Kingdom)", it gives the same result as pictured.

Habitual · 07-22-2017, 08:21 AM

TBH Mark, I have overlooked this issue for years in Mozilla products, or never cared enough to figure out why all my American English words
do the same thing.

sysfce2 · 07-22-2017, 09:06 AM

I think the only way is to install a fully localized version: if that's not an option in Ubuntu then there is Mozilla's direct link.

DavidMcCann · 07-22-2017, 11:49 AM

This is something you'll just have to live with! Programmers will create versions for foreign languages, but not for varieties of the same language. In Open/LibreOffice, you can have British spellchecking, but the only English user interface is US.

mark_alfred · 07-22-2017, 12:13 PM

Historically they have created a language pack for en-gb, and are still doing so. That it's not working may be a bug. Here's the site of the software. https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n:Teams:en-GB

ETA: I did just now submit a bug report on the package thunderbird-l10n-en-gb using reportbug.