How to change the regionalization or language of Ubuntu?

Your Interface is not in your language or translations are missing. Here is a tutorial to change the language of Ubuntu (to switch to French for example…), install some of the missing translations and change the region.

Prerequisite

Be on Ubuntu 18.04 or higher

Have an account with administrator rights

Have an internet connection. It is needed to download and install language packs from Ubuntu repositories.

Introduction

What is software regionalization

Put simply, the regionalization (or localization) of a software corresponds to the translation of its interface into a language other than the default one as well as the formatting of numbers, dates, measures, etc. depending on the location chosen. But, not all software necessarily has translation and / or regionalization ...

The global regionalization of Ubuntu

It is done during the first step of installing Ubuntu with the choice of language.

This choice allows:

to have the installation guide in French (or other)

and above all to finally have the system and basic applications in the selected language.

Finally, this regionalization of Ubuntu can be done after its installation as we will see below.

Software regionalization under Debian / Ubuntu

Regionalization of some software can be done with the installation of a specific package. For example in Ubuntu, the regionalization in French of:

Firefox is done with the firefox-locale-fr package

Thunderbird, with thunderbird-locale-fr

LibreOffice, with libreoffice-l10n-fr

Chromium (open-source platform for Google Chrome browser), with chromium-browser-l10n

But other software can incorporate regionalization files as standard and will use the system parameters by default to offer their interface in the corresponding language (example: GIMP, Inkscape, etc.)

Change the language of Ubuntu through the graphical interface

To access Ubuntu's language settings, go to the system settings panel:

Then in the Country and Language tab:

A standard user can only change the language of his session and can only choose a language previously installed by an administrator ... While a user with an administrator account can change the language of the entire system and install new languages.

But before you go any further, first update your system. This will ensure that you have the latest translation files installed. You can do this from the update manager or from the command line:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Install a new language and missing language files for basic apps

This operation requires an administrator account.

To change the language of your system, if it is not already, you must first install the desired language.

So, to add a new language, go to the Country & Language settings, then click on Manage Installed Languages.

If packages are missing for the languages ​​already installed, a window will prompt you to install them:

Please feel free to look at the details to see if it pertains to packages in your default language. Indeed, the missing packages may be related to an installed language that you do not use (yet) ...

In the Language Support window, you have:

(1) languages ​​already installed.

(2) an Install / Remove languages… button

and other buttons which we will see the usefulness later

Click the Install / Remove Languages ​​... button.

Then select the desired language (s) (1), and click Apply (2) to install them.

Then enter your administrator password to continue with the installation.

If you deselect a language, when you do Apply, it will uninstall it.

The installed language (s) are added to the list of languages ​​available for the system.

Change Ubuntu language and regionalization options only for your user session

Change the language

To change the language, go to System Settings> Countries & Languages, and click Languages.

Then select your new language from the proposed list (1). Then press Select to exit (2).

Finally, disconnect from your session or restart to apply the new settings. The button added to the interface will log you out.

When you reconnect, it is proposed to rename the standard folders (Documents, Images, Music, etc.) in the chosen language.

There is no right choice. On the other hand, if you have already created shortcuts to these folders, it may be better to keep their names as they are so you don't have to recreate them ... It's up to everyone to see what they prefer.

If you choose to keep the names already present (which may be preferable on a system that has already been used), remember to check Do not ask the question again so that you do not have it the next time you log on. However, this choice is final and will no longer be offered even if you change the language again ... But, if you update the names, no need to check the option ...

Another method of changing the language of your account is to do so in the Manage Installed Languages ​​window. But this is much less practical ...

Change formats

To change the regionalization (date format, currency, etc.), click Formats.

Then select the country for which you want to adopt the format for formatting dates, currency, ... (1). And do Finish (2) to exit.

Change Ubuntu language and regionalization options for the whole system

To be able to change the language and regionalization of all the system (login screen, other users, etc.), you must log in with an administrator account.

Go to System Settings> Countries and Languages. Then click on Manage installed languages.

To change the language, select the one you want from the list and drag it to the top of the list.

Then to apply this change to the whole system, click the Apply System-Wide button.

And enter your administrator password.

Also, in the Regional Formats tab (1), you can change the country (2). Thus the formatting of dates, currency, etc. will match the one chosen. And again, once you have made your choice, click on the Apply System-Wide button (3).

Finally, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

Change the language and regional formats in the official variants of Ubuntu (Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, ...)

As for the official variants, the principle remains the same with access to these different parameters.

Change language and regional formats in Xubuntu

Go to Settings.

Then Support for languages.

Then take your pick.

And, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

Change language and regional formats in Kubuntu

Go to System Configuration.

Then in the regional settings.

And take your pick.

And, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

Change language and regional formats in Lubunbu 18.04

In the menu, go to the Language support settings:

Then, make your choice:

And, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

Change language and regional formats in Lubunbu 20.04

In the menu, go to the Region settings:

Then, make your choice:

Change language and regional formats in Ubuntu MATE

In the menu, go to the Language Support Preferences:

Then, make your choice:

Change the language and regional formats in Ubuntu Budgie

In the menu, go to the Language support settings:

Then, make your choice:

And, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

Change the language of Ubuntu from the command line

First, you have to install the language packages corresponding to the one you want. For example for French:

sudo apt install language-pack-fr

At the end of the installation, you can write down the codes for the languages ​​installed. They will then be used to change the language and regional formats:

Also optionally you can install the translated man in your language. Example:

sudo apt install manpages-en

Then, install the other missing language packs:

sudo apt-get install $ (check-language-support)

Finally switch your system to the desired language:

sudo update-locale LANG = fr_FR.UTF-8 LANGUAGE = fr_FR

And, log off or restart your computer to see the changes applied.

To check the language configuration, you can do:

local