language problem Etch 4.0

[coyotito]

i use Etch in Norwegian and it seems the internationalization is much poorer than in Sarge.
For some reason i get menus etc. in programs, desktops (gnome, xfce) in a mixture of Swedish, danish and Norwegian.
The locales settings seem okay and this has happened on 2 different machines.
Anyone heard of such problems?

[Lavene]

i use Etch in Norwegian and it seems the internationalization is much poorer than in Sarge.
For some reason i get menus etc. in programs, desktops (gnome, xfce) in a mixture of Swedish, danish and Norwegian.
The locales settings seem okay and this has happened on 2 different machines.
Anyone heard of such problems?
I'm using KDE and have no problem with Norwegian. Gnome I don't know but I did try Xfce4 just for fun and it insisted on speaking Swedish. I have also noted some command line apps that spits out a strange combination of Norwegian and Swedish. Like "nano", the editor, that asks questions in Norwegian but want the input to be in English: "Vil du fortsette (J/n)?" But it don't understand "J", it wants a "Y".

But I guess it's only a sign of a need for more translators...

Tina

[coyotito]

Yes, KDE has it own language files I think. But on my aging Toshiba laptop it is not an option..
I'm told this works perfectly in all desktops (and commandline apps/terminals) in Ubuntu. No doubt it will be sorted out in later revisions of Debian.

[coyotito]

I tried Ubuntu on an old hard drive and:
it is NOT better translated. As soon as you try installing non-default things it is worse, not surprising as software versions are more recent.

[Lavene]

The problem with translations is of course that someone has to sit down and actually do it. It's tedious and oh so boring... there are tons of free software projects out there just screaming for more translators. So as usual in this world of FOSS: either you scratch your own itch or you learn to live with it until it passes. ;)

Tina

[coyotito]

well, i could do some translation.. (know a couple of languages)
my brother did translation on xfe and some other stuff

[lisi]

While we are on languages, does anyone know whether Japanese Etch is usable? Or anything else in Japanese, for that matter? Vine looks quite promising, but I think would be rendered unusable because it is rpm based.

If I set her up to dual boot in a distro that is familiar to me, I am hoping that the two of us will be able to muddle through! But if I wouldn't know what to do in English without a bit of trial and error, then in Japanese it would be a non-starter.

Does anyone know what program availability in Japanese is out there - and could it run on an English install?

Is there a Japanese live CD/DVD?

To explain, I speak no Japanese and read less. My granddaughter, who is half Japanese and lives in Japan, has recently come here to England for her secondary education. She would like to be able, sometimes, to, for example, email in Japanese, browse in Japanese etc. She has plenty of free space on the HDD of her (English) computer here for another partition or 2. I just need to be able to work out how to do it for her!!

Lisi

[bhobjj]

I had a friend from Taiwan visit us for 2 weeks. I followed an excellent Chinese How-To and found that is was very easy to do in Debian.


I can't find a How-To for Japanese, but it is probably not vey difficult

Set a specific language for a user with language-env:
http://people.debian.org/~kubota/language-env.html

You will need to install the fonts.
Try:
$ apt-cache search japanese | grep font


You probably want packages for web browser and email
icedove-locale-ja - Japanese language package for IceDove
iceweasel-l10n-ja - Japanese language package for Iceweasel
openoffice.org-help-ja - Japanese help for OpenOffice.org
openoffice.org-l10n-ja - Japanese language package for OpenOffice.org



And an input method and related files:
canna - Japanese input system (server and dictionary)
kinput2-canna-wnn - An input server for X11 applications that want Japanese text input
kinput2-common - Files shared among kinput2 packages
libcanna1g - Canna Runtime Library

You need to restart your system init for the input method server to start.

I found a couple more resources:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html
http://www.debian.or.jp/

[coyotito]

there must be some live distro in japanes out there, otherwise it should be possible in debian if you have a native speaker to help you

i still find it strange that Etch handles Scandinavian languages so poorly.
Even old applications and terminals that had no problems in Sarge now speak a mixture of the Scandinavian languages.
Something has gone wrong on the environment level, this is NOT to do with translation of individual open source projects.
How is it that something that worked fine in Sarge is messed up now?

[lisi]

Thanks for that, bhobjj. Most useful! I had, in fact, found the Etch page - hence my original question: Is Japanese Etch usable? (The Scandinavian languages do not appear to be usable in Etch!) But those other sites I had not yet found, so thank you.

<there must be some live distro in japanes out there,>

Indeed - but I haven't found it!

< otherwise it should be possible in debian if you have a native speaker to help you>

That's what I am hoping. But since you, who are very computer competent, are having some problems with Etch's attempt at Scandinavian languages, I am a little worried. Still, my granddaughter will be back next month so we shall be able to suck and see. ;-)

Lisi

[bhobjj]

<there must be some live distro in japanes out there,>
Lisi
Berry Linux (http://yui.mine.nu/berry/) was originally a Japanese language live CD.
Vine Linux (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vine) is also a Japanese distro.
Knoppix Japanese edition (http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/index-en.html)

Turbolinux (http://www.turbolinux.com/support/download.html)
Is a Japanese distro (but not a "live" CD distro). The last time I tried it was 8 or 9 years ago, when it used Icewm as the default desktop.
OT: They are selling a handheld device named WizPy (http://www.turbolinux.com/products/wizpy/index.html?x=1).

[lisi]

Thanks! :-) I had found Vine - but it is rpm based. Knoppix, however, I had not found and am very familiar with, and any live CD is fine anyway - my granddaughter can start with that to learn enough of the vocabulary for the two of us to be able to install a distro for her.

It's a pity I've now got to wait a month till my grand daughter come back to England for September school. But as my ability to read Japanese is limited to 6 canna (chi, hi, ro, me, i, n*) and two Kanji, I need her here to do the reading!

I also need to do my homework on the Japanese language programs for an English install suggested by Castaway, since in the end that may turn out to be the better (simpler) way to go.

Lisi

[coyotito]

I hope it worked out.
I cleaned out my machine today, home folder and all and did a floppy+network install of the
revision 1 of Etch.
Impressed, it has improved --was pretty good to begin with.
Scandinavian languages now work far better.

[lisi]

I hope it worked out.


My granddaughter has only just arrived and I delivered a still jet-lagged child to her school this evening. I am hoping to try some things out with her during her first weekend with us.

Thanks for all the advice from you lot. I'll report back on success or failure!

Lisi