• Dolphin, how to let it show locale time format

    From =?UTF-8?Q?Marco_M=C3=B6ller?=@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 17:40:01 2025
    Dolphin seems to not respect the time format display as configured in
    Region & Language - Time.

    This appears to be a bug in KDE Plasma 6 as delivered with Trixie.
    If it can be configured in the Region & Language settings, then it is to
    be expected that at least all apps coming delivered by the KDE project
    respect this setting. What else should this configuration setting be
    useful for?!

    Do you know a workaround to get Dolphin using the wished format for Date
    and Time displays? While I have the language set to en_US, I need the
    time displayed in ISO format or a locale format!

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?Marco_M=C3=B6ller?=@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 18:30:01 2025
    On 4/15/25 17:34, Marco Möller wrote:
    Dolphin seems to not respect the time format display as configured in
    Region & Language - Time.

    This appears to be a bug in KDE Plasma 6 as delivered with Trixie.
    If it can be configured in the Region & Language settings, then it is to
    be expected that at least all apps coming delivered by the KDE project respect this setting. What else should this configuration setting be
    useful for?!

    Do you know a workaround to get Dolphin using the wished format for Date
    and Time displays? While I have the language set to en_US, I need the
    time displayed in ISO format or a locale format!


    The currently applied settings, settings which are actually in use
    despite any KDE System Settings configurations, are shown by this
    command at the CLI prompt:
    $ locale

    Watch out for any value set to LC_ALL, "LC_ALL=C" for instance.
    If LC_ALL is set to a value, then this implies strictly overruling any
    other LC configurations with this value!
    Specific settings like, for instance, "LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8" exported
    elsewhere, or configured in the KDE System Settings, are overruled with
    a value set to LC_ALL !

    $ export LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
    $ sudo update-locale LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
    Neither of the two commands would show any effect as long as LC_ALL is
    set to a value. The same applies for the Regional & Language settings of
    KDE System Settings dialogs, they cannot be applied.

    To unset LC_ALL use the following command:
    $ sudo update-locale LC_ALL=
    Dolphin now shows the wished display format for the columns showing times. There might me apps complaining about this value not being set, though.
    Those apps could always be started by explicitly setting for them a
    LC_ALL value in front of the app starting command, then.


    It would have saved me a lot of headaches and time, if KDE System
    Settings would have shown a warning message about the settings not
    becoming applicable as long as LC_ALL is set to a value. It could have
    checked for such value to exist, and then warn and explain and describe possible steps, which the user then could consider to go for.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?Marco_M=C3=B6ller?=@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 23:30:01 2025
    On 4/15/25 18:24, Marco Möller wrote:
    To unset LC_ALL use the following command:
    $ sudo update-locale LC_ALL=
    Dolphin now shows the wished display format for the columns showing times. There might be apps complaining about this value not being set, though.
    Those apps could always be started by explicitly setting for them a
    LC_ALL value in front of the app starting command, then.

    Unfortunately, this cannot be the solution.
    Too many apps used at the CLI complain about the missing LC_ALL
    definition. Some even crashed at startup ("skanpage" started from the
    CLI, for instance).

    What to do? If LC_ALL is set, so that the CLI can be used in a
    reasonable way, then no specific locale settings can be applied, for
    instance for setting the time format to a locale format.

    My wish is for my system (CLI and KDE, both!) to use everywhere English language, but region (time zone, time format including start of week) to
    be set to German, and Address and Telephone Number formats set to Spanish.
    In Principle KDE allows to set all of these, but only as long as LC_ALL
    is not defined. As said, then unfortunately the CLI cannot be used
    reasonable anymore because of warning messages cluttering the screen too
    often or commands even refusing to execute correctly.

    What I currently have set up:

    $ locale

    locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    LANGUAGE=en_US
    LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_NUMERIC=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_MONETARY=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_PAPER=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_NAME=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_ADDRESS=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_TELEPHONE=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_MEASUREMENT=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_ALL=

    Even more confusing, even in Debian package "locales-all" there does not
    exist "en_DE.UTF-8", just checked it for Trixie. But KDE System Settings defined it, obviously. How can this be?

    Any hint or help to get an international, a globe spanning environment
    working is appreciated!

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?Marco_M=C3=B6ller?=@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 16 02:30:01 2025
    On 15.04.25 11:26 PM, Marco Möller wrote:
    On 4/15/25 18:24, Marco Möller wrote:
    To unset LC_ALL use the following command:
    $ sudo update-locale LC_ALL=
    Dolphin now shows the wished display format for the columns showing
    times.
    There might be apps complaining about this value not being set,
    though. Those apps could always be started by explicitly setting for
    them a LC_ALL value in front of the app starting command, then.

    Unfortunately, this cannot be the solution.
    Too many apps used at the CLI complain about the missing LC_ALL
    definition.
    What I currently have set up:

    $ locale

    locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    LANGUAGE=en_US
    LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_NUMERIC=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_MONETARY=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_PAPER=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_NAME=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_ADDRESS=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_TELEPHONE=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_MEASUREMENT=en_DE.UTF-8
    LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_ALL=

    Even more confusing, even in Debian package "locales-all" there does not exist "en_DE.UTF-8", just checked it for Trixie. But KDE System Settings defined it, obviously. How can this be?


    SOLVED:
    A full day of life time lost to learn that KDE offers supposedly
    available definitions in its selection lists under Region & Languages,
    which in fact do not exist, like for instance the "en_DE" option does
    not exist.


    SOLUTION:
    The user has to know that not all options can be used successfully,
    although offered! Some of them are simply illusion.
    Instead, the user demanding an international desktop environment has to
    look up and only request options which originally appear in file:

    /etc/locale.gen

    At the bottom of this file there may, after many attempts to solve the
    problem, appear some final lines:

    # generated by KDE Plasma Region & Language KCM
    en_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8

    These lines are not to be understand as original. Actually, what is
    listed here is a clear indicator for trouble! This, for example,
    "en_DE.UTF-8" is exactly the option which shall be avoided to select in
    KDE System Settings - Region & Languages.


    Only having chosen valid options, LC_ALL can stay unset, then. Like this
    LC_ALL will not overrule anything. If commands would not ask for
    specific settings but for a global setting, like for the one possibly
    defined in LC_ALL, then an automatic fallback mechanism will
    alternatively read for them what is defined in LANG, if LC_ALL is not
    defined. By this all CLI commands continue to work as expected.
    Apps, which do interpret the specific settings individually, for
    instance graphical apps like Dolphin running under KDE Plasma 6.3 in
    Debian Trixie, can do so: they for instance can be displayed in one
    language but using locale formatting from other languages.


    Thus, a working setup is the following, for instance:

    $ locale

    LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    LANGUAGE=en_US
    LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_NAME=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_ADDRESS=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_TELEPHONE=es_ES.UTF-8
    LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
    LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
    LC_ALL=


    I am not sure if I should place a bug report to request KDE System
    Settings - Region & Languages selection lists to not offer options prone
    to provoke problems like the one I suffered and having burned so much
    time of life. The internet is already full of similar reports, many
    claiming that bug reports would have been placed already, but for years
    not solved. The Year of the Linux Desktop will come, though!


    I am really grateful to the developers of KDE, Debian, and many other developers who make Linux possible! THANKS A LOT FOR IT!!
    Still, concerning some parts of it, even after using it for some 25
    years now, I only can shake my head in disbelief.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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