[Bug 1800297] Re: localectl updates /etc/default/locale without root privileges

[Iiro Laiho]

This is a particularly confusing "feature" if user is using the LUKS
encryption. Then changing the keyboard layout via GNOME's settings will
also change the preboot environment's keyboard layout, but only after
the next kernel update. And if the user has enabled "org.gnome.desktop
.input-sources show-all-sources" and switched to one of those "extra"
layouts, it becomes even more confusing: the new layout is applied to
everywhere except GDM. See:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/issues/433

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1800297

Title:
  localectl updates /etc/default/locale without root privileges

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  localectl updates /etc/default/locale when it is run as non root user:
  $ localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

  $ ls -l /etc/default/locale 
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 Oct 26 12:46 /etc/default/locale

  My account is neither root nor in group root:
  $ groups
  christian adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare

  $ ls -al `which localectl`
  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 21916 Oct  4 16:58 /usr/bin/localectl

  --- 
  ProblemType: Bug
  ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu13
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDesktop: LXQt
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
  MachineType: Dell Inc. MM061
  Package: systemd 239-7ubuntu10
  PackageArchitecture: i386
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-10-generic root=/dev/mapper/vg0-fedora ro
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-10.11-generic 4.18.12
  SystemdDelta:
   [EXTENDED]   /lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service → /lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service.d/debian.conf
   [EXTENDED]   /lib/systemd/system/user at .service → /lib/systemd/system/user at .service.d/timeout.conf
   
   2 overridden configuration files found.
  Tags:  cosmic
  Uname: Linux 4.18.0-10-generic i686
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
  _MarkForUpload: True
  dmi.bios.date: 06/13/2007
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: A17
  dmi.board.name: 0KD882
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.chassis.type: 8
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA17:bd06/13/2007:svnDellInc.:pnMM061:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0KD882:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: MM061
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

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