How to make Gentoo speak your language and show local characters correctly

v2.0.4 (en), xiando,

How to localize Gentoo Linux. Examples for Norwegian, Danish and Swedish configurations.

Console
KDE
XFree
Profiler
Dictionaries
OpenOffice.org

1. Console

Edit /etc/rc.conf and choose:

1.1. Norwegian

  KEYMAP="no-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat0-16"

The Norwegian keyboard-layout file no-latin1.map has a bug that causes the DEL key to send Backspace, not Del as expected. This can be fixed by editing the file like this:

Unpack the file no-latin1.map.gz
- gunzip /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/no-latin1.map.gz - Place a # in front of the line plain keycode 111 = Delete # "Remove" originally, weird... to disable it by commenting it.
- nano -w /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/no-latin1.map
Compress the file again: gzip /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/no-latin1.map

The information in this section was provided by Internet Service Design.

1.2. Swedish

  KEYMAP=sv-latin1
  CONSOLEFONT="lat0-16"

1.3. Danish

  KEYMAP="dk-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat0-16"

1.4. Icelandic

  KEYMAP="is-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="cp850-8x16"
  CONSOLETRANSLATION="8859-1_to_uni"

1.5. Polish

  KEYMAP="pl"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat2-16"

1.6. Belgian

  KEYMAP="be-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat0-16"

1.7. Brazilian

  KEYMAP="br-abnt2"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat9w-16"

1.8. Canadian French

  KEYMAP="cf"
  CONSOLEFONT="default8x16"
  CONSOLETRANSLATION="8859-1_to_uni"

1.9. German

  KEYMAP="de-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat9w-16"

1.10. French

  KEYMAP="fr-latin1"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat9w-16"

1.11. Spanish

  KEYMAP="es euro2"
  CONSOLEFONT="lat0-16"

KEYMAP configures your keyboard, CONSOLEFONT makes sure local chars are displayed correct.

2. KDE

Use the variable LINGUAS= to choose what languages you want and install kde-i18n for local language support in KDE:

LINGUAS="nb nn se da pl pt_BR de es" emerge kde-i18n

3. XFree

Edit /etc/X11/XF86Config (or the configuration file you are using). Find:

   Section "InputDevice"
          Identifier  "Keyboard0"

And add:

3.1. Norwegian

  Option "XkbLayout" "no"

3.2. Swedish

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "se"

3.3. Danish

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "dk"

3.4. Icelandic

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "is"

3.5. Polish

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "pl"

3.6. Belgian

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "be-latin1"

3.7. Brazilian

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "br-abnt2"

3.8. Canadian French

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "ca_enhanced"

3.9. German

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "de"

3.10. French

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "fr"

3.11. Spanish

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "es" -> para teclado en español

   Option  "XkbLayout"     "la" -> para teclado latinoamericano

This gives you local chars on the keyboard in XFree (and/or Xorg).

This gives you local chars on the keyboard in XFree and/or Xorg.

4. Profiler

Some variables will identify what language you want common applications to use.

Edit

/etc/profile
and/or (to set the locale on a pr. user basis)
~/.profile
~/.bashrc

and add

4.1. Norwegian

  export LC_ALL="no_NO;nb_NO"

4.2. Swedish

  export LC_ALL="sv_SE"

4.3. Danish

  export LC_ALL="da_DK"

This makes the programs, if translated, speak your language.

5. Dictionaries

Norwegian, Swedish and Danish spelling dictionaries are in Portage:

  emerge aspell-no aspell-sv ispell-sv aspell-da ispell-da

You probably also want to install English (aspell-en), German (aspell-de) and French (aspell-fr).

6. OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice can be installed in many different languages, among them:

ENUS	US English (default)
PORT	Portuguese
RUSS	Russian
GREEK	Greek
DTCH	Dutch
FREN	French
SPAN	Spanish
FINN	Finnish
CAT	Catalan
ITAL	Italian
CZECH	Czech
SLOVAK	Slovak
DAN	Danish
SWED	Swedish
POL	Polish (openoffice.com.pl)
GER	German
PORTBR	Portuguese brazilian
THAI	Thai
ESTONIAN	Estonian
JAPN	Japanese
KOREAN	Korean
CHINSIM	Simplified Chinese (PRC)
CHINTRAD	Traditional Chinese (taiwan)
TURK	Turkish
HINDI	Hindi
ARAB	Arabic
HEBREW	Hebrew

To install OpenOffice in Swedish:

  LANGUAGE=SWED emerge openoffice

Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Øyvind Sæther. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Page source: i18n.t2t.tar.bz2