change default language (localization)

[Tim]

On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 18:57 +0200, David Hláčik wrote:

> i have installed Fedora 9 with default english language. Now i want to
> switch to "Czech Language".

I don't know if it's still the case, but it used to be quite a difficult
task to do that afterwards.  It was better to install with all the
languages that you thought you might need selected.  You might want to
study the anaconda script for the install disc, and see what it does
when you choose your own languages.

At the logon screen, you can change languages.  But that's a nuisance to
do for multiple users.  You can yum install system-config-language to
set the default language for the system, then let individual users
change away from your default, if they need to.

But that's just part of your issue.

> How can i do that :
>
> 1) I want to have same packages like if i have choosed Czech Language
> during install

>From what I've seen, some multi-language supporting programs often
install with all the languages, in the first place.  That's why some of
the packages are so big (e.g. Firefox).  Others do have separate
packages for different languages (e.g. KDE, OpenOffice).  You could
fetch a list and filter it for your language/country names in the
packages.  Or just manually install a few extra packages.

Have a look at a Fedora mirror, and trawl through the "everything"
collection of packages.  If you're going to yum install
openoffice.org-langpack-cs_CZ (for example), yum will install any
updated packages, if there are any, automatically.

At a quick glance, I can see three obvious packages:
kde-i18n-Czech
kde-l10n-Czech
openoffice.org-langpack-cs_CZ

You could also try a yum search against the same terms:
yum search \*czech\*
yum search \*cs_cz\*

> 2) also i have problem with Firefox and setting fonts for "Czech -
> cs_CZ language" . No one from list of font groups - even central
> european does not change fonts on Czech sites.

Be sure to pick the languages that you can read in the web browser
configuration, and list them in order of preference.  Any website that
uses content negotiation will go by what your browser says you can read.
You'll still strike problems with badly authored websites (both in
offering you other languages, and displaying mangled texts).  There's no
good solution for sorting out messed up websites.

You might want to install all, or more of, the foreign fonts, too.  I've
done that in the past.  Although I can't read most of them, it's better
to see webpages in their proper characters, rather than as a pile of
codes.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686

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