Bug 1312690

Attempting to launch gnome-terminal results in the following errors:

[wag@usb ~]$ gnome-terminal

(process:2312): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Terminal exited with status 9

Same problem happens to me. I propose this as Alpha blocker as it violates the alpha criterion: "It must be possible to run the default web browser and a terminal application from all release-blocking desktop environments."

https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Terminal/FAQ#Exit_status_9

I believe this could be due to the recent langpack related changes in the glibc package. I have heard that a recent glibc update in rawhide caused people to loose all their locales.

Not our fault - the glibc langpack split must be engineered such that people don't loose all their locales when upgrading.

(In reply to Matthias Clasen from comment #5)
> Not our fault - the glibc langpack split must be engineered such that people
> don't loose all their locales when upgrading.

I can't make it to the meeting today, so +1 blocker here.

So I've taken a bit of executive action here. I think there's really two issues. It seems to me that "gnome-terminal fails to start if only C locale is available" is a real bug, but not a high severity/priority one and not really the blocker issue here unless we actually envisage Workstation systems with no locales as a typical use case, which I don't think we do.

The real blocker bug we know about for sure is "all locales disappear on upgrade to a glibc package with the langpack split", so I filed https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1312956 and nominated it as a Beta blocker (since upgrade issues are Beta).

It's possible we may wind up having *another* blocker (or two! isn't this fun) for locales not being present after fresh install, but we can't tell that yet because anaconda is completely broken so we can't test it.

So I think we should keep this bug and re-assign it to gnome-terminal for the 'gnome-terminal should be able to run with the C locale' case, but drop the priority/severity and the blocker nomination. I've done that, go ahead and yell at me if you think I'm wrong. :)

> the 'gnome-terminal should be able to run with the C locale' case

This has already been WONTFIXed upstream, but note that you can just use C.UTF-8 (if fedora provides that like debian does).

OK. So is the fix for users here to just install the correct langpack?  SO I should install glibc-langpack-en?

hmm, I think C.UTF-8 is supposed to be available when no langpacks are installed. I'll dig into this a bit more if I find time, just out of curiosity's sake...

Yeah, C.UTF-8 is part of the built-in set (or is supposed to be). If it's not failing back to that locale, then the bug is still in gnome-terminal (maybe a downstream patch?)

(In reply to Stephen Gallagher from comment #11)
> Yeah, C.UTF-8 is part of the built-in set (or is supposed to be). If it's
> not failing back to that locale, then the bug is still in gnome-terminal
> (maybe a downstream patch?)

C.UTF-8 is *absolutely* part of the built-in set on Fedora and other distributions. We are working to set this standard distribution wide so that everyone can use a fallback UTF-8 locale.

If you find a distribution that doesn't have it, please tell me and I'll go upstream to discuss it with their respective glibc liason (https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/MAINTAINERS#Distribution_Maintainers)

With glibc-2.23.90-3.fc25 and glibc-2.23.1-5.fc24 we have now fixed
the upgrade issue in several important ways.

See:
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WXOOUGA3YCB2O4O77JGLSJZ25BS4RFK5/

You should now always get glibc-all-langpacks by default, and so gnome-terminal should just work.

However! That doesn't mean this bug is fixed. We'll be minimizing the installed locales and it would be better if gnome-terminal ran in a C.UTF-8 locale properly.

right, we're keeping this bug around for that purpose.

gnome-terminal works just fine when the locale is C.UTF-8 . What doesn't work (by design) is when you configure a locale that does not exist.

(In reply to Christian Persch (GNOME) from comment #15)
> gnome-terminal works just fine when the locale is C.UTF-8 . What doesn't
> work (by design) is when you configure a locale that does not exist.

Christian, Thanks for confirming.

Do you see any way to better support restoring broken systems when say a user sets environment variables incorrectly and gnome-terminal won't start?

For example, this:
~~~
(process:2312): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Terminal exited with status 9
~~~
Is not easily seen as "You specified a locale that doesn't exist. Please correct your locale settings and restart gnome-terminal."

There is https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Terminal/FAQ#Terminal_fails_to_start but I understand that inferring things from the exit status can be cryptic.

*** Bug 1313413 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to Debarshi Ray from comment #17)
> There is https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Terminal/FAQ#Terminal_fails_to_start
> but I understand that inferring things from the exit status can be cryptic.

Perfect. That answers everything for me. I think this bug should be CLOSED/NOTABUG then.

The glibc team is looking at a fallback that might help such cases e.g. have UTF-8 enabled C locale as a fallback:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1313818

(In reply to Debarshi Ray from comment #17)
> There is https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Terminal/FAQ#Terminal_fails_to_start
> but I understand that inferring things from the exit status can be cryptic.

In 3.19.91, the error message has been augmented by a 1-line explanation and a link to the corresponding FAQ section.

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