[Bug 1094872] Re: Installation information cause letter format instead of DIN A4

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

Let me first comment on the discussion about locale settings in the
installer. I'm inclined to think that the installer UI is not really
sufficient as a base for setting all the locale categories. You are
asked about the time zone, and that leads me to assume that my answer
affects /etc/timezone and such stuff. Consequently I have thought that
the installer typically sets LANG based on the language choice, while
language-selector is meant to be used afterwards if needed to complete
the locale. However, when I mentioned this at bug 1035498, Steve
Langasek objected.

Different ways to state the default paper size seem to cause quite some
confusion; see for instance bug 393818. I don't know to which extent
various apps care about LC_PAPER directly. LibreOffice seems to use
/etc/papersize and ignore LC_PAPER. However, it would be reasonable IMO
that the default paper size is derived from the paper height and width
in the LC_PAPER locale (which info ought to be possible to access via
nl_langinfo).

Irrespective of how the paper size issue is dealt with in the installer,
I can think that it should be possible to change /etc/papersize
afterwards from the desktop. One thought is that when regional formats
are changed system-wide via language-selector, /etc/papersize is updated
accordingly. That way user specific settings of LC_PAPER would still be
ignored, but it would probably be a step in the right direction.

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Title:
  Installation information cause letter format instead of DIN A4

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Raring:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Dear ladies and gentlemen,

  I switched to Debian unstable after problems with TeXLive installations introduce about Oneiric.
  As experienced Unix administrator (AIX and RedHat certified) I was astonished not to be able
  to solve the problem.
  After several attempts I found out that my choices given to the installer:
         English - Berlin timezone - German eliminate deadkeys
  yield without any reason to the assumption that the paper format is "letter".
  E.g. scientists in Germany allways use English language and Berlin time (i.e. the real place being Germay),
  which should clearly qualify to DIN A4 choice, so the choice for /etc/papersize (letter) should be altered
  to "a4" under these (and similar) selections.
  The behaviour is there as already stated since Oneiric - before it worked as expected -
  and is present in the latest flavour.
  I currently work under Xubuntu 12.10 but have several installations (including Ubuntu 12.10
  [which is really unstable and Unity still not configurable] and Debian Wheezy [testing,
  the latter working out of the box without changing /etc/papersize manually]).
  As this bug is quite clear I hope you can fix it before 13.04 - this bug is really mean as the
  real problem is hidden for the user and even when trying to change problems relvealed in
  TeXLive installation relying on the wrong set of papersize  the TeXLive scripts for that purpose
  are not working (Debian related).
  But this is _NOT_ a TeXLive problem - when in Germany (Berlin time) and setting English
  (i.e. /etc/default/locale  being: LANG="en_US.UTF-8"), papersize should be a4 and NOT letter.
  Otherwise one should ask for papersize seperately.
  If other data is needed (not think so - but anyway) please contact me:
     Jochen.M.Braun at gmx.de

  Many thanks in advance for your help!

  JMB

  P.S.: If I missed something - like an expert mode of the installer - please inform me.
     But as unexperienced users may have similar selections the problem should be fixed anyway.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
  Package: ubiquity (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-21.32-generic 3.5.7.1
  Uname: Linux 3.5.0-21-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Mon Dec 31 13:24:16 2012
  InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/xubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-23 (68 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.1)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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