No accented letters in window title bars, dash and hud.

Bug #1599516 reported by Coeur Noir
14
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
BleachBit
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
unity (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hi,

I've noticed problems with accented letters since few days in 16.04 Unity :

- in window title bar, accented letters are replaced with « square symbols ». It happens in all softwares when windows are not maximized. Once maximized, accented letters are correctly shown ( in top panel, for example : Vidéos, Téléchargements… ). Wrong display of accented letters comes back once window is un-maximized.

- in dash, accented letters are ignored. If I type « démarrage » on keyboard I get « dmarrage » in dash

- [edit] same behaviour in HUD, no accented letters there either, which is very annoying in french.

I did not have those behaviours some days ago.

https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=21549999#p21549999

https://askubuntu.com/questions/796979/unity-16-04-accented-letters-dont-show-in-dash-and-are-replaced-in-window-title

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/252804Capturedu20160706141859.jpg

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/249469Capturedu20160722020615.jpg
→ here title bar depends on website and is sometimes right.

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=501247Capturedu20160801144258.jpg
→ here launched through quicklist, title bar is ok - but problem with accent comes back once browsing folders.

Language is French FR_fr keyboard is Français (variante)

Core i7 w/ Intel HD graphics

_______________________________________

2016-07-26 : re-install from 16.04.1 iso → accented letters are back !
_______________________________________

2016-07-27 : accented letters are gone - replaced with "squares" :-/
_______________________________________

2016-08-10 : help…
_______________________________________

2016-08-22 : maybe someone else here facing same problem https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=1994977
_______________________________________

2016-08-31 I now have the same problem with Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
http://hpics.li/d86599b
_______________________________________

2016-09-06 solved in both ubuntu 16.04 & 14.04
bleachbit most probably deleted too many files regarding localizations
see comment #38 and following

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Another screenshot showing the « bug » with accented letters :
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/722577Capturedu20160708012213.png

I've also noticed that bug does not happen if « folders » are opened using the bookmarks in Nautilus.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Here is another example with firefox and the same window, non-maximised (accents not ok) and maximised (ok)
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/905004exemple.png

Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

HUD suffers same problem as Dash :

if « sélection » is typed on keyboard, it becomes « slection » in HUD.

summary: - Accented letters not shown in window title bars and dash
+ No accented letters in window title bars, dash and hud.
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

well it's not only esthetic problem, but a real usability issue : you can not use accented letters in dash & hud search - which is a real pain for many languages…

…glad it's triaged but what am I supposed to do now ? I'm still having the issue on my up-to-date 16.04 - so probably 16.04.1 by now…

Any log or else I may provide ?

Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

I did a reinstall from 16.04.1 iso and problem is solved…

…but that does not help knowing what caused it though.

description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Problem is back ! ! !

description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Added Pango in the list because of those last lines here on that screenshot…

Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
no longer affects: compiz-core-ubuntu
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1) wrote :

Can you post the output of:
$ locale -a
$ env | grep LC
$ env | grep LANGUAGE

Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Changed in hud:
status: New → Incomplete
Changed in pango:
status: New → Incomplete
Changed in hud:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Changed in pango:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Of course, thanks for your interest.

test@Asgard:~$ locale -a
C
C.UTF-8
en_US.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
test@Asgard:~$ env | grep LC
test@Asgard:~$ env | grep LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE=fr_FR
test@Asgard:~$

I confirm env | grep LC returned nothing.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

test@Asgard:~$ cat /etc/default/locale
# File generated by update-locale
LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8"
test@Asgard:~$

test@Asgard:~$ locale
LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=fr_FR
LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
test@Asgard:~$

Should I run :

setenv LC_ALL fr_FR

?

Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
no longer affects: pango
no longer affects: hud
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

( just a question : following your invalid notices I removed the other project in bug description. I wonder why it is invalid for HUD as this bug actually affects HUD - accented letters can't be typed in )

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

test@Asgard:~$ cat /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"
test@Asgard:~$

Shouldn't be there also
LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8"
in that file ?

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Added LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8" to /etc/environment → no change…

Revision history for this message
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1) wrote :

1. No, your /etc/environment looks just fine.
2. Unity is responsible to render the HUD, so Unity (Ubuntu) is the correct project to blame
3. env | grep LC looks suspicious, I'll look into it

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Thank you.

Out of inspiration I did

env | grep LC

on my running fine 14.04 installation and it also returned nothing.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

« 2. Unity is responsible to render the HUD, so Unity (Ubuntu) is the correct project to blame »

Ok with that - but it's neither Unity nor HUD that render the window-title-bar ? Compiz ?

Revision history for this message
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1) wrote :

Unity renders the window title bar too.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Ah, my ignorance, sorry ;-) Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Don't know if it can help… I've just notices accented letters appear right in chromium window title bar - while it's still wrong in firefox title bar…

http://hpics.li/5057af1

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1) wrote :

@Coeur, on a session where you can reproduce the problem give the following command and post here the output:
$ args --null --max-args=1 < /proc/$(pidof compiz)/environ

Also it would be useful the content of ~/.cache/upstart/unity7.log also.

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Sébastien Cany (s-cany) wrote :

I have the same problem :

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

test@Asgard:~$ cat ~/.cache/upstart/unity7.log
WARN 2016-08-24 14:44:08 unity.windowmanager.x XWindowManager.cpp:107 Impossible to get the property WM_NAMEfor window 58720257 properly: impossible to convert to current locale
test@Asgard:~$

But args does not work as expected ?

test@Asgard:~$ args --null --max-args=1 < /proc/$(pidof compiz)/environ
*** args: --null: unknown command option
test@Asgard:~$ args --help
Usage: args [options] arguments...
Echo command line arguments

Options:
  -h, --help display this list
  -d .., --delim=char set deliminter between arguments
  -D, --directory expand directory into file arguments
  -l, --lines list arguments on separate lines
  -q .., --quote=string set quote for each argument
  -R, --recursive recursive directory scan
  -F, --follow follow symlinks
  -r, --reverse reverse order of arguments

Report bugs to <email address hidden>
test@Asgard:~$

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Can this help ?

test@Asgard:~$ cat /proc/$(pidof compiz)/environ
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/binXDG_VTNR=7PAM_KWALLET5_LOGIN=/tmp/kwallet5_test.socketXDG_SESSION_ID=c2CLUTTER_IM_MODULE=ximXDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm-data/testSHELL=/bin/bashQT_LINUX_ACCESSIBILITY_ALWAYS_ON=1GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge:unity-gtk-moduleUSER=testQT_ACCESSIBILITY=1XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0DEFAULTS_PATH=/usr/share/gconf/ubuntu.default.pathXDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg:/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settingsDESKTOP_SESSION=ubuntuQT_IM_MODULE=ibusQT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=appmenu-qt5PWD=/home/testXDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11XMODIFIERS=@im=ibusLANG=fr_FR.UTF-8MANDATORY_PATH=/usr/share/gconf/ubuntu.mandatory.pathGDM_LANG=fr_FRIM_CONFIG_PHASE=1COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE=ubuntuGDMSESSION=ubuntuSESSIONTYPE=gnome-sessionGTK2_MODULES=overlay-scrollbarSHLVL=0XDG_SEAT=seat0HOME=/home/testLANGUAGE=fr_FRXDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=ubuntuLOGNAME=testQT4_IM_MODULE=ibusXDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktopXDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000DISPLAY=:0GTK_IM_MODULE=ibusXDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=UnityXAUTHORITY=/home/test/.XauthorityDBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-whFQNZPQwXSSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/sshGNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=GNOME_KEYRING_PID=GPG_AGENT_INFO=/home/test/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID=this-is-deprecatedSESSION=ubuntuJOB=unity-settings-daemonINSTANCE=UPSTART_EVENTS=xsession startedXDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome-SESSION_MANAGER=local/Asgard:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/3715,unix/Asgard:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3715UPSTART_JOB=unity7UPSTART_INSTANCE=UPSTART_SESSION=unix:abstract=/com/ubuntu/upstart-session/1000/3511test@Asgard:~$

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

It seems some files from KDE/plasma remain → I had installed a plasma session to check if problem with accented letters would happen → it did not happen in plasma → I removed plasma session.

Revision history for this message
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1) wrote :

Sorry it was xargs.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

No problem ;-)

test@Asgard:~$ xargs --null --max-args=1 < /proc/$(pidof compiz)/environ
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
XDG_VTNR=7
PAM_KWALLET5_LOGIN=/tmp/kwallet5_test.socket
XDG_SESSION_ID=c2
CLUTTER_IM_MODULE=xim
XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm-data/test
SHELL=/bin/bash
QT_LINUX_ACCESSIBILITY_ALWAYS_ON=1
GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge:unity-gtk-module
USER=test
QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
DEFAULTS_PATH=/usr/share/gconf/ubuntu.default.path
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg:/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings
DESKTOP_SESSION=ubuntu
QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=appmenu-qt5
PWD=/home/test
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
MANDATORY_PATH=/usr/share/gconf/ubuntu.mandatory.path
GDM_LANG=fr_FR
IM_CONFIG_PHASE=1
COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE=ubuntu
GDMSESSION=ubuntu
SESSIONTYPE=gnome-session
GTK2_MODULES=overlay-scrollbar
SHLVL=0
XDG_SEAT=seat0
HOME=/home/test
LANGUAGE=fr_FR
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=ubuntu
LOGNAME=test
QT4_IM_MODULE=ibus
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
DISPLAY=:0
GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity
XAUTHORITY=/home/test/.Xauthority
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-ECs1QuMZyb
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=
GNOME_KEYRING_PID=
GPG_AGENT_INFO=/home/test/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1
GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID=this-is-deprecated
SESSION=ubuntu
JOB=unity-settings-daemon
INSTANCE=
UPSTART_EVENTS=xsession started
XDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome-
SESSION_MANAGER=local/Asgard:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/3612,unix/Asgard:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3612
UPSTART_JOB=unity7
UPSTART_INSTANCE=
UPSTART_SESSION=unix:abstract=/com/ubuntu/upstart-session/1000/3409
test@Asgard:~$

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

test@Asgard:~$ cat ~/.cache/upstart/unity7.log
WARN 2016-08-24 16:27:31 unity.windowmanager.x XWindowManager.cpp:107 Impossible to get the property WM_NAMEfor window 60817409 properly: impossible to convert to current locale
WARN 2016-08-24 16:27:48 unity.windowmanager.x XWindowManager.cpp:107 Impossible to get the property WM_NAMEfor window 56623135 properly: impossible to convert to current locale
Using PPAPI flash.
[WARNING:flash/platform/pepper/pep_module.cpp(63)] SANDBOXED
Vector smash protection is enabled.
[1:1:0824/162819:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(84)] Not implemented reached in static bool blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::currentCapsLockState()
[1:1:0824/162835:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/162838:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/162841:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/162858:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163148:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163149:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163156:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163158:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163236:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163240:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163241:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
[1:1:0824/163252:ERROR:PlatformKeyboardEvent.cpp(117)] Not implemented reached in static blink::PlatformEvent::Modifiers blink::PlatformKeyboardEvent::getCurrentModifierState()
test@Asgard:~$

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Question : can this bug also affect language displayed in some dialog boxes like for example « open a media » in VLC, which remains in english ?
picture http://hpics.li/0dea671
other people affected https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=1995094

Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Same problem since today with Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
http://hpics.li/d86599b

Just before noticing this problem with accented letters I had a problem with some dead keys used in french for ^ and ¨
I was then unable to type ê or ï ( only ^e or ¨i )
I had to go to system-settings → language → and re-enable ibus as input method - I say « re-enable » because I think it was enabled by default.
Something may have changed this setting ?

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

It seems Ibus has nothing to do with ê-keys. I put back none as input method and ê or ï or î work as expected.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

I used bleachbit 1.12 that day on ubuntu 14.04
https://answers.launchpad.net/bleachbit/+question/376577

and I also used it on ubuntu 16.04 - version 1.10-1 from ubuntu universe repository.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Andrea Azzarone wrote:
> 3. env | grep LC looks suspicious, I'll look into it

Not a problem. LANG is set, so the LC_* categories inherit their values from LANG.

@Coeur: You'd better remove the 'LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8"' entry from /etc/environment, since it's already set in /etc/default/locale. And please don't start messing with LC_ALL.

Seems like the common denominator is Bleachbit. I have no idea what that tool removes, but fear that it removes too much. :(

Can you please show us the output from these commands:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

On ubuntu 14.04 ( where I'm facing the same problem now )

gerald@Asgard:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources
[('xkb', 'fr+oss'), ('xkb', 'fr')]
gerald@Asgard:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current
uint32 0
gerald@Asgard:~$

I think my environment file is ok :

gerald@Asgard:~$ cat /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"
gerald@Asgard:~$

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

On ubuntu 16.04 ( where I first noticed the problem )

test@Asgard:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources
[('xkb', 'fr+oss')]
test@Asgard:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current
uint32 0

test@Asgard:~$ cat /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

…all same as in 14.04

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Ok, thanks, it confirms that the "French (alternative)" keyboard layout is effective.

I just realized that's it's not a (pure) typing problem, but a display problem, which indicates that it's font related. You may want to rebuild the font cache using this command:

fc-cache -fr

(it takes a few seconds to execute)

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

fc-cache -fr

…no, does not fix.

About bleachbit I ask a question on its forum https://www.bleachbit.org/forum/what-are-files-deleted-regarding-%C2%AB-translations-%C2%BB-ubuntu

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Here is a list of items to delete from bleachbit 1.0-1 on one « working fine » ubuntu 14.04 machine.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

Now on the same machine, I installed bleachbit 1.12 from bleachbit website and run with the same settings, here is the huge list of items to delete.

( this time I did not go further and so did not delete those files - my ubuntu still works fine )

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

OMG! Some things are just utterly stupid. Is there a way to "undo" whatever bleachbit messed up?

It sounds as if you have confirmed by now that it's not a problem with the default Ubuntu installation. So if I was you, I'd simply reinstall and forget about bleachbit.

Don't know what else to say.

Revision history for this message
Andrew Ziem (ahziem1) wrote :

If you can narrow it down to specific files that were deleted by BleachBit, you can have apt-get reinstall the affected package to undelete the files.

Also if you can figure out which files should not be deleted, I can work on whitelisting them to prevent them from being deleted again.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

On 2016-09-05 05:00, Andrew Ziem wrote:
> If you can narrow it down to specific files that were deleted by
> BleachBit, you can have apt-get reinstall the affected package to
> undelete the files.

Indeed, but that person won't be me. In this case it seems to have affected both typing (there shouldn't be a need to clear all IM related environment variables on Ubuntu - the default setting "IBus" should work fine) and displaying of certain characters, and this makes it extra complicated.

> Also if you can figure out which files should not be deleted, I can
> work on whitelisting them to prevent them from being deleted again.

Not sure where I'd start. Generally it's a bad idea to delete selected package owned files instead of the packages, since they will be reinstalled at next package upgrade, so the whole concept with bleachbit is fragile and controversial.

I can mention two examples, which I find extra weird:

* The ubuntu-docs package only installs English content pages, together with symlinks to pages in other languages. Content pages in other languages are installed via language-pack-gnome-*-base packages as part of the language support for respective language. So there is already a space saving arrangement in place. Bleachbit still interferes and removes those symlinks in /usr/share/help/*/ubuntu-help! (Similar seems to be done unnecessarily for a few other help packages as well.)

* Bleachbit seems to remove locale definition files in /usr/share/i18n/locales which belong to the locales package. Why? If you want to affect which locales are actually generated, then the proper way to do it in 16.04 is to edit the /etc/locale.gen file. In general: Never mess with glibc provided packages if you don't really know what you're doing, or else bad things can happen.

Another thing which struck me is that several directories in /usr/share/X11/locale are removed, possibly jeopardizing the X system in an unpredictable manner and certainly breaking the XIM input method for those who want to use that.

My principal contribution to Ubuntu is about helping out with various localization issues. I monitor and patch a few packages and provide l10n/i18n related support. I suspect that various subtle issues which are reported are due to the use of bleachbit, and this bug report seems to be an example of it. Bleachbit probably causes quite some headache out there.

So I have my reasons for advising against the use of bleachbit, and I'm not inclined to spend more time on it.

--
Gunnar Hjalmarsson
https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

…ok… I'll go for reinstall as I am not skilled and talented enough to narrow down the specific files that are needed / not necessary to delete.

16.04 was only for testing, quite empty.

14.04 is my actual place of working and will be tougher to reinstall.

But at least I know how to do that.

Thanks Andrea & Gunnar for time, (trying to) help, explanations and pieces of advices.

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

16.04 → get back to normal situation ( with accented letters ) thanks to Bertrand0 here https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=21586183#p21586183
which also confirms BleachBit is to blame.

sudo aptitude reinstall apt chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n cups-common dconf-editor debconf-i18n dpkg e2fsprogs example-content firefox firefox-locale-fr fwupdate gimp-data gimp-plugin-registry gksu gnome-icon-theme gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly iso-codes language-pack-fr language-pack-fr-base language-pack-gnome-fr language-pack-gnome-fr-base language-selector-common libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0 libc-bin libgimp2.0 libgksu2-0 libgom-1.0-common liboxideqtcore0 libqt4-script libstdc++-5-dev libx11-data libzvbi-common locales menu pavucontrol qtcore4-l10n qttranslations5-l10n radiotray synaptic unity-lens-applications unity-lens-files unity-tweak-tool update-notifier-common vlc-data xdg-user-dirs xkb-data-i18n xscreensaver

I'm still struggling with 14.04…

Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

…and finally found how to fix in 14.04 too !

Helped by the command provided by bertrand0

dpkg-query -S \*/{translations,locale,locales,locale-langpack,i18n} | sed -r 's/, /\n/g' | sed -r 's/:.*//' | sort -u | sudo xargs aptitude reinstall

I've finally noticed that xkb-data and xkb-data-i18n were not at their initial trusty version. Months ago I had manually upgraded them to fix a problem with somehow inactive Right Ctrl key. So I've forced back those packages to their actual trusty version, and now accented letters are back in title bars, dash and hud ( after relogging ).

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Great that you are about to resolve it! Wish I understood which files affect this, but I don't.

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in bleachbit:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Coeur Noir (coeur-noir) wrote :

I assume xkb-data and xkb-data-i18n are good candidates, since as soon as I reinstalled them, accented letters were back.

Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

On 2016-09-07 00:36, Coeur Noir wrote:
> I assume xkb-data and xkb-data-i18n are good candidates, since as
> soon as I reinstalled them, accented letters were back.

Yeah, sounds like a hint to the BleachBit folks.

(hadn't seen your comment #46 when I posted my comment #47)

As regards those two packages, and based on your latest comments, I assume that reinstalling was a no-op in 14.04, since you had a higher version number installed than was available in the archive. That in turn would explain why the files removed by BleachBit were back only when you downgraded.

Revision history for this message
Andrew Ziem (ahziem1) wrote :

October 2016 there was a major commit in BleachBit to how localizations are cleaned. This came out in BleachBit 2.0. Is this still an issue?

Git reference 6a56170c66effffb66b80afe1a8a44b09fb34fa2

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