I didn’t know if most of C is US. I’d suspect too many people would not like that if it were true, but I don’t have a concrete answer. Maybe? Maybe not?
Wasn’t getting it to stay set at C but with LANG set at US what you wanted? Or have I completely been confused because it’s late? Then wouldn’t this be closest to that?
i thought C would be the default which would be english language for most programs (i meant the language, not the formats - formats are exactly what i was trying to get rid of)
and yes, that’s what i wanted and that’s what i meant in my previous post. so i said that C is likely pretty close to that.
Ok. I think I understand. Thanks for clarifying.
I didn’t know if I want to suggest this since you’ve pretty much gotten it where you want.
If you set LANG to US in your conf but leave everything else at C does that make a mess of it all again?
my conf right now is
LANG=C.UTF-8
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
since apparently it doesn’t matter what i set and it’s just going to take one value.
if i changed LANG to en_US, everything would change to that, including the dates and formats.
also it’s almost 5 in the morning here and i’d kinda prefer sleeping for a while. i might take a look at it later but i’m not sure if i’ll get any better results.
thanks for the help! <3
Some notes:
echo "LANG = '$LANG'" >> /tmp/mylog) there (as the first and last command) to see if that is changing your desired settings.Hello,
I have read through this thread and if I have understood it correctly this is what you want:
I have played around a bit with “localectl” and may have found a solution.
solution.
You just need to extend the command line accordingly with the “LC_*=C.UTF-8” values. It’s a bit of work but it will produce what you want I think.
sudo localectl set-locale LC_MESSAGES=C.UTF-8 LC_NUMERIC=C.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Then show the “/etc/locale.conf”:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=C.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=C.UTF-8
If you have extended the command line accordingly and run it with “localectl” you should get a
sudo locale-gen
After that it should survive a system reboot. 
I thought of that this morning but hadn’t the time to get back here yet. Editing the shell script could definitely work, I saw multiple examples online.
I don’t use i3 either and really know nothing about it. I’d it like other to tiling setups where it uses a different WM or does it have it’s own?
Yes @HPF-84E I do believe that is what @elishka was hoping to achieve. My understanding (way too late in the day for my 
to work well) was that it was all or nothing. Albeit, it didn’t make sense because my own is a complete mess, but stays that way.
The other thing I haven’t quite figured out is why locale was giving different output than localectl for @elishka. I get same results when I do so.
I3 will probably not make its own settings.
I don’t think that LC_ALL=… is a good choice. It overwrites your previous input. It should only be run for a certain amount of time during a session. localectl refuses to run that too.
15:48:46^jag@jag-81vr:
~> sudo localectl set-locale LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
[sudo] Passwort für jag:
Failed to issue method call: Locale assignment LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 not valid, refusing.
15:49:24^jag@jag-81vr:
Have a look at this thread. It explains it very well.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30479607/explain-the-effects-of-export-lang-lc-ctype-and-lc-all
/etc/profile.d/locale.sh only sources /etc/locale.conf (i have no other locale configs) and exports the variables. it also says that if LANG is unset then it’s plain C but my LANG is set so that’s unchanged.
i3 shouldn’t have its own locale settings, i don’t see anything like that in ~/.config/i3/config
localectl is aware of these changes and they’re correctly set in /etc/locale.conf but after a reboot locale shows it’s en_US again,
just like before, unsetting and sourcing the locales before a reboot works but it’s reverted afterwards.
i’ve read the thread but i still don’t see why LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 is bad if i want a non-regional locale.
i can read and write accents and foreign characters just fine.
If you haven’t read this, please do.
i don’t think any of those apply, sorry. i don’t have a desktop environment or a display manager that would change my locale (or at least i don’t think i do, i don’t see anything weird there) nor is this an unofficial locale.
You want to set everything to LANG=C. Is that correct? I tried it and it works. I have not changed the keyboard layout as I am from Germany.
The content of /etc/locale.conf is always reconfigured based on your entries. So it makes no sense to enter anything there.
Here is what I have done:
Check if available:
17:23:51^jag@jag-81vr:
~> localectl list-locales
C.UTF-8
de_DE.UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8
17:25:29^jag@jag-81vr:
Make setting:
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=C.UTF-8
After reboot:
17:25:29^jag@jag-81vr:
~> localectl
System Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8
VC Keymap: de
X11 Layout: de
X11 Model: pc105
17:29:03^jag@jag-81vr:
Check:
17:23:44^jag@jag-81vr:
~> locale
LANG=C.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="C.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
cat /etc/locale.conf
LANG=C.UTF-8
As I said, I only changed the locale for the language and not the keyboard layout.
this is what i did in earlier posts and i think it’s the best available option for me so far
$ cat /etc/locale.conf
LANG=C.UTF-8
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
$ localectl
System Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8
VC Keymap: us
X11 Layout: us
my keyboard is handled with fcitx5 so it doesn’t affect my writing.
I have already written that before.
LC_ALL is ignored after a reboot because no setting is possible by default.
The fallback is probably used? I have no idea!
The first entry is created automatically if you follow my instructions.
i don’t think i fully get what you mean by “the first entry is created automatically”
i achieved this by editing /etc/locale.conf last night when i was solving the issue here and i get the same output from locale as you do.
Good question!
Answer: SystemD
No idea what exactly is being written in the background. But since SystemD you have to use “localectl” no matter what you write manually in /etc/locale.conf.
rtfm
now i understand even less. doesn’t localectl just write those settings to locale.conf?
editing locale.conf worked if i set LANG=C.UTF-8.
if it’s yet another systemd fault then i’ll be mildly disappointed.