Funtoo Linux Localization

Read Your Language

A newly installed Funtoo Linux does not able to read all the languages. You want to read the stuff, say, in Mozilla Firefox. You need to install fonts - A good sign that you have not installed the proper fonts is that the following characters appear as boxes with numbers inside: 日本語フォント

Check if you have your language installed (Chinese) by using the fc-list command from the media-libs/fontconfig ebuild:

root # fc-list :lang=zh

A easier way to get the correct font installed is copy this to /etc/portage/make.conf (Simplified Chinese)

root # LANGUAGE="en_US zh_CN"

After editing the file, run emerge:

root # emerge -avuDN world

If you are lucky, the right font will be installed, and your apps will also be able to use Chinese as the default language. But in case you not have the right font installed in this way, you need to install them manually.

For Japanese:

root # emerge media-fonts/kochi-substitute

For Chinese:

root # emerge media-fonts/arphicfonts

For Korean:

root # emerge media-fonts/baekmuk-fonts

Set Default Language

Suppose you are able to read your languages and you want to go further to set the default Languages for your apps, such as xfce4.

/etc/locale.gen and /etc/env.d/02locale are used to support your local language. The following are examples for French Canadian. You can look in /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED for the default list of supported combinations or look in /usr/share/i18n/locales to determine values to use.

root # nano -w /etc/locale.gen

Copy this value to your file (French Canadian)

fr_CA.UTF-8 UTF-8

To set the default language globally:

root # nano -w /etc/env.d/02locale 

Copy this to your file (French Canadian)

LANG="fr_CA.UTF-8"
LANGUAGE="fr_CA.UTF-8"

After editing the files, generate a localized environment:

root # locale-gen && env-update && source /etc/profile

You can also set the default language per user by set the LANG and LANGUAGE environment variable in ~/.profile, and then logout and login.

Keymap

Funtoo Linux defaults to a US English keyboard. If you are using another type of keyboard, edit /etc/conf.d/keymaps and set keymap to your keyboard model. For example, cf for French Canadian keyboard, fr for French Azerty.

root # nano -w /etc/conf.d/keymaps

Input Method

ibus is an Intelligent Input Bus for Linux.

root # emerge -av ibus

You also need to install language table for ibus (Chinese)

root # emerge -av ibus-table-chinese