Bug 149375 - LibreOffice, KDE Plasma and Umlauts
Summary: LibreOffice, KDE Plasma and Umlauts
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: low minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-05-30 10:02 UTC by Khalid
Modified: 2023-02-24 15:56 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Description Khalid 2022-05-30 10:02:09 UTC
Hey everyone,

I already posted this on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/libreoffice/comments/uwqdi6/bug_libreoffice_kde_plasma_and_umlauts/ and got sent here.
So this seems to be a rather recurring problem, judging by the results I get when I do a search. 

On two computers, one running Arch the other running Kubuntu, both with a current PLASMA release. Region in the settings is set to "en_DE.UTF-8". That is English user interface with German time and date, measurements, numbers, etc.

Both have the same problem:

When I try to open a file with an umlaut in the file name (ö, ä, ü, ß) LibreOffice gives me an error message: /home/myuser/Documents/fl??ten.odt does not exist.
With question marks instead of the umlaut.

It does not matter whether the umlaut is in the file name or the path.

So this doesn't work either:

/home/myuser/D??cuments/floeten.odt does not exist.

Also, it doesn't matter whether it's odt or ods or any other LO file type.

I know. It is not good practice to use umlauts in path or document names. I get that. Regular users don't. This shouldn't be an issue, so I'm trying to bring it to the attention of whomever it may concern.

It is very reproduceable. Just setup a VM with your distro of choice, set it to the region described above and see for yourself. (just tried it with Fedora 36 Live KDE-Plasma Spin)

I'll be happy to provide any information necessary and am grateful for your suggestions. :)

Feel free to use the umlauts from this text to name your test files. ;)

-   Version: 7.3.3.2 / LibreOffice Community
-   Build ID: 30(Build:2)
-   CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+wayland)
-   Locale: de-DE (en_DE.UTF-8); UI: en-US
-   7.3.3-2
-   Calc: threaded
-   Document Format: ODT, ODS, ODP ... doesn't really matter.

-   No need to share a specific document.
    Just create one and use one of the umlauts I provided above if you don't have them on your keyboard (or all of them ;) ).

And: just tried opening those same files with calligra and abiword - works fine.

Thanks again! :)
Comment 1 Rafael Lima 2022-05-30 23:12:54 UTC
Hi Khalid,

I'm on Kubuntu 21.10 and I created a file named flöten.odt and it opens both from Dolphin and from within LO (File - Open). So I cannot reproduce the issue.

I'm on a pt-BR locale. The umlaut has no negative effect in my case. Let's see if anyone else can confirm this.

System info:
Version: 7.3.3.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:2)
CPU threads: 12; OS: Linux 5.13; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
Locale: pt-BR (pt_BR.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.3~rc2-0ubuntu0.21.10.1~lo1
Calc: threaded
Comment 2 Khalid 2022-06-07 13:17:00 UTC
(In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #1)
> Hi Khalid,
> 
> I'm on Kubuntu 21.10 and I created a file named flöten.odt and it opens both
> from Dolphin and from within LO (File - Open). So I cannot reproduce the
> issue.
> 
> I'm on a pt-BR locale. The umlaut has no negative effect in my case. Let's
> see if anyone else can confirm this.
> 
> System info:
> Version: 7.3.3.2 / LibreOffice Community
> Build ID: 30(Build:2)
> CPU threads: 12; OS: Linux 5.13; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
> Locale: pt-BR (pt_BR.UTF-8); UI: en-US
> Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.3~rc2-0ubuntu0.21.10.1~lo1
> Calc: threaded

Thanks for trying Rafael!
Very strange. I just tried setting the locale from en_DE to de_DE, just to make sure. Still no change.
Here's hoping someone else tries and can confirm.
Comment 3 Khalid 2022-06-07 13:25:14 UTC
(In reply to Khalid from comment #2)
> (In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #1)
> > Hi Khalid,
> > 
> > I'm on Kubuntu 21.10 and I created a file named flöten.odt and it opens both
> > from Dolphin and from within LO (File - Open). So I cannot reproduce the
> > issue.
> > 
> > I'm on a pt-BR locale. The umlaut has no negative effect in my case. Let's
> > see if anyone else can confirm this.
> > 
> > System info:
> > Version: 7.3.3.2 / LibreOffice Community
> > Build ID: 30(Build:2)
> > CPU threads: 12; OS: Linux 5.13; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
> > Locale: pt-BR (pt_BR.UTF-8); UI: en-US
> > Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.3~rc2-0ubuntu0.21.10.1~lo1
> > Calc: threaded
> 
> Thanks for trying Rafael!
> Very strange. I just tried setting the locale from en_DE to de_DE, just to
> make sure. Still no change.
> Here's hoping someone else tries and can confirm.

OK - sorry, have to correct what I said there.
Had to log out and back in for the changes to take effect first, but apparently on locale de_DE LO starts and opens any file, even with umlauts.
Back on en_DE, I get the error message again.
Comment 4 Roman Kuznetsov 2022-10-29 19:48:17 UTC
Eike, you may be interested in this, it seems as some locale support problem
Comment 5 Eike Rathke 2022-11-01 18:01:37 UTC
I doubt any system actually has support for an en_DE.UTF-8 locale, if not handcrafted.
Just enter this on the command line:
LC_ALL=en_DE.UTF-8 locale
and you'll get something like

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

Whatever happens if in KDE a locale is set to such an invalid value, apparently it influences the text encoding with which file system paths are read by LibreOffice with thread encoding, probably for an invalid locale it falls back to a non-UTF-8 C or other locale, which would explain the question marks instead of umlauts.

If (from the system or command line) you want English UI with otherwise German locale settings then instead set that properly, like

LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8

where LC_CTYPE determines the default system locale LibreOffice uses for number formatting and so on, if not overridden under Tools -> Options.

Be sure to not set LC_ALL that would override any other LC_... variable.
LANG=... may be set, LC_MESSAGES will take precedence if set. Anyway, for the UI language a LANGUAGE=... set will take precedence over both LC_MESSAGES and LANG, so LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8 would work as well.
Comment 6 Buovjaga 2023-02-24 15:56:24 UTC
Closing as invalid per the last comment.