Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 56489
accents (é è ê) do not work in writer
Last modified: 2005-11-20 15:04:02 UTC
So this case might be a special one since the Linux used is a Debian sarge and the packages used for installing OOorg 2.0 were alienated using the command alien *.rpm. No matter what keyboard configuration is set, OOorg 2.0 refuses to use the dead keys for writing è é or ê and related characters, which makes it impossible to work with certain languages. The installed OOorg 1.1.3 works perfectly and does change its behavior depending on the keyboard settings (nodeadkeys vs. basic). With rc2 I also tried the alien option --scripts, but this did not influence the lack of accents afterwards. I'll post a comment if this behavoiur holds true for the new Mandriva 2006 installation (installation of the vanilla rpm's.) If this is an Debian-only issue it would be worth to include a readme for Debian users or to find a way to circumvent this issue. (Easiest way would be to provide fully working *.deb's and let the mirroring be done by some Debian related sites if the servers are too busy). Benjamin P.S.: Apart from this révue-stopper, the new version is a pleasure to use (at least for the 95% german in me ;-)
just for the records: I don't get that problem here on Ubuntu-Linux using OOo2.0 Build 8968 (from ftp.linux.cz)...
BTW: I'm pretty sure that this is no "P2" issue... setting priority to "P3"... BTW: 2 :)) You may try the version from ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/openoffice.org-cs since these versions are made in *.deb, too... Maybe this is just a problem occuring by converting rpms to *.deb... (?)
Hm thanks for responding. Tested the packages from your site, downgraded from 2.0.0-4 to 2.0.0-3 but it didn't work out, the problem persisted. Since it works with Ubuntu the problem seems to be specific. I had set the problem to P2 because it touches a basic funcionality (if you ask a frech user). Any hints where the keyboard configuration is handled by OOorg 2.0? I have set the Keyboard configuration within the KDE control center, and this works fine for OOorg 1.1.3 (Debian version). Should I remove the GNOME integration package since I do not use GNOME? Thanks. Benjamin
Gnome integration removed (not purged), problem persists here. benjamin
Works in Mandriva 2006. Same packages alienated for Debian (Libranet 3.0 pinned to sarge to be entirely correct), no-go, annoying. setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout de -variant basic benjamin
Reassigned to SBA.
I can confirm this problem exists also in Gentoo: Linux foofat 2.6.11.7 #2 SMP Sun May 15 20:47:09 MDT 2005 i686 AMD Duron(tm) AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux OpenOffice.org 2.0 OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 does not have this problem. This problem has come up before and seems to recur a lot. It would be nice to have some better change control on functions affecting locales and internationalization with X.
Make sure you're using a valid locale (both supported by X as well as glibc) OOo should fallback to en_US when there is no valid locale, but this might fail. So open a terminal and type "locale" (paste the output here) You may also try to launch soffice with "LC_CTYPE=en_US soffice" and check whether the problem persists. debian requires some weired locale-configure-stuff - so make sure you actually have support for en_US) If you're using something like "de_DE@euro", try "de_DE" or "de_DE.ISO-8859-15"
Hmm, weird. Here is the output from console and the try to launch OOorg2 from console with the parameter LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro (de_DE -> same thing): [----------------------------console----------------------------------] [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ locale LANG= LC_CTYPE="POSIX" LC_NUMERIC="POSIX" LC_TIME="POSIX" LC_COLLATE="POSIX" LC_MONETARY="POSIX" LC_MESSAGES="POSIX" LC_PAPER="POSIX" LC_NAME="POSIX" LC_ADDRESS="POSIX" LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX" LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX" LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX" LC_ALL= [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro soffice I18N: Operating system doesn't support locale "" [----------------------------console----------------------------------] OK seems that locale is not set???? Why does it function systemwide everywhere else? I will edit the file /etc/locale.gen and add the locale settings (one set per line): de_DE ISO-8859-1 de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15 [----------------------------console----------------------------------] [root@q2ohome:/home/libjamin]# locale-gen Generating locales (this might take a while)... en_US.ISO-8859-1... done en_US.ISO-8859-15... done en_US.UTF-8... done de_DE.ISO-8859-1... done de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro... done Generation complete. [root@q2ohome:/home/libjamin]# export LANG=de_DE@euro [root@q2ohome:/home/libjamin]# export LC_ALL=de_DE@euro [root@q2ohome:/home/libjamin]# export LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro [----------------------------console----------------------------------] Without reboot nothing, furthermore the output of locale stays exaclty the same for user and root. (Why that?). Benjamin
Sorry, I forgot to edit the last post after the reboot. So after a reboot the problem persists. I beg your pardon for the unnecessary traffic. Benjamin
Here is the output of "locale" on my machine sfbosch@rhombus:~$ locale LANG= LC_CTYPE="POSIX" LC_NUMERIC="POSIX" LC_TIME="POSIX" LC_COLLATE="POSIX" LC_MONETARY="POSIX" LC_MESSAGES="POSIX" LC_PAPER="POSIX" LC_NAME="POSIX" LC_ADDRESS="POSIX" LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX" LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX" LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX" LC_ALL= sfbosch@rhombus:~$
POSIX is an invalid locale for composed characters. XLookupString (the function meant to be used in C/POSIX) locales doesn't support composed characters. Other applications work because they ignore the locale or workaround this issue. And why are you trying "de_DE@euro" when I explicitly mentioned not to use that, but some more sane value like "de_DE"? The message I18N: Operating system doesn't support locale "" Is a clear indication that the locale is not supported, that the configuration is messed up. Again: The locale must be supporrted by *both* X and glibc. And exporting the LC_<stuff> as root doesn't help much when launching OOo as regular user... Just try with the locale that is most probably valid in both: en_US "LC_CTYPE=en_US soffice" If that still return "Locale not supported", then conatact your local Linux User Group or get another distro.
1) I have tried both de_DE@euro *AND* de_DE, both as root *AND* as user. 2) I had already tried to run OOorg with the command "LC_CTYPE=en_US soffice" and it does not change its behavior. 3) I am very sorry that I am a simple user who does not understand the locale system in depth. I can compare the behavior of the different versions on two different distros, google a bit, twiggle a little bit, but I am no developer of any kind of software. 4) Nevertheless thanks, I did the following commands as USER (before, I did this as root only, you're right) [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ export LANG=de_DE [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ export LC_ALL=de_DE [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ export LC_CTYPE=de_DE [libjamin@q2ohome:~]$ LC_CTYPE=de_DE soffice -> now it works. I apologize for not having understood everything properly in the first place, but "get another distro" is a bit rude ... all I did was trying to help and for the average User the behavior of OOorg2 after installation on Debian stays a little bit odd. Maybe one could include a remark in a readme.debian or a remark about the locales in the release notes? Since OOorg was the ONLY program that had this kind of issue on this system (even when in your eyes the system might have an issue). Thanks. Benjamin
Where does this locale information need to be placed? .bashrc? .bash_profile? I agree with Benjamin -- the fact that this works in OpenOffice 1.1.5 but doesn't in 2.0 should be a warning sign. This keeps happening and -- at the very least -- a note about it should be included in the help system (there is nothing). I should note that I have not tested this fix yet and it will take me some time to do so. I had to revert to 1.1.5 because I needed working deadkeys.
Okay -- I have tested sfbosch@foofat:~$ export LANGUAGE=en_US sfbosch@foofat:~$ export LC_ALL=en_US sfbosch@foofat:~$ export LC_CTYPE="en_US soffice" sfbosch@foofat:~$ export LANG="en_US" And deadkeys now work.
> I apologize for not having understood everything properly in the first place, > but "get another distro" is a bit rude ... It maybe a bit rude, admittedly, but it is just like that: If you cannot get your system to work properly (or if it is broken by design - it shouldn't offer non-valid choices at all), then you may be better of with a different one that does what it is supposed to do, without having to read dozens of man-pages or other documentation, without having to try 5 different locales until one gets to one that actually is supported by the system. > Since OOorg was the ONLY program that had this kind of issue on this system > (even when in your eyes the system might have an issue). It is definitely the system that has an issue here. And the others circumvent that buggy configuration. OOo is not willing to introduce hacks for that. Instead it now tries to fallback to en_US. But if that fails as well, then you're basically on your own to fix the setup. > the fact that this works in OpenOffice 1.1.5 but doesn't in 2.0 should be a > warning sign. It definitely won't work with vanilla OOo 1.1.5 either. Maybe your distro patched the startup-scripts or similar from 1.1.5 to set a valid locale. OOo 2.0 is less voulnerable to that problem since it now tries to fallback to en_US when it encounters C. For more (technical) details, please see issue 16318 And BTW: It wasn't meant to be used like this: export LC_CTYPE="en_US soffice" but like this export LC_CTYPE="en_US" soffice or LC_CTYPE="en_US" soffice *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 16318 ***
If you're sure that all of the following is true * you're using vanilla OOo from www.openoffice.org * The locale "en_US" is valid (both X and glibc) on your system * composed characters still don't work in OOo then please file a follow-up issue to issue 16318 in order to find out why the fallback didn't work.