locales.md

Setting localisation options

This is probably the most straightforward patch. The only assumption is that you have not tried to set locales before. In other words, the /etc/local.gen file is unchanged from the Raspbian image you downloaded.

Procedure

1. Be in the correct directory

   $ cd /etc
   

2. Make a backup copy of the default file:

   $ sudo cp locale.gen locale.gen.bak
   

3. Launch raspi-config

   $ sudo raspi-config
   

4. Choose your locale options. Always include the default "en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8". For example, I enable:

   • en_AU ISO-8859-1
   • en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
   • en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

   in addition to the default:

   • en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

   Those options work for me. You will have to make your own decisions.

5. Follow through to the end of the raspi-config process. There is no need to reboot.

6. Prepare a differences file:

   $ diff locale.gen.bak locale.gen >~/locale.gen.patch
   

   In my case, the patch file looks like this:

   $ cat ~/locale.gen.patch
   134,135c134,135
   < # en_AU ISO-8859-1
   < # en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
   ---
   > en_AU ISO-8859-1
   > en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
   163c163
   < # en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
   ---
   > en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
   

7. Move the patch file to the folder:

   ~/PiBuilder/boot/scripts/support/etc/
   

   The next time you build a Raspberry Pi using PiBuilder, your locales will be set automatically.

See also the LOCALE_LANG environment variable in the PiBuilder options file.