Debian change language: to English, command

Debian change language: to English, command

Debian is a Linux-based operating system for a range of various devices, such as laptops, desktops, and servers. To change the language settings of the Debian operating system, you must first run the su command and get root permissions (admin).

How to change Debian language?

  • First of all, you need to set EnvironmentVariables (LANG, LANGUAGE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES) to your language. Open the Terminal and use the command:
# env | grep LANG
  • Next, reconfigure your locales by issuing on a root terminal this command: #export LANG=(two letter code for your language)_(two letter code for your country).UTF-8. For example, for the French language, it would be:

# export LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
  • Then, reconfigure locales via this command: dpkg-reconfigure locales.
  • A window will ask you to select the language you want to use for the distribution (for example, EN for English, FR for French, DE for German etc).
  • Make your selection and confirm.
  • After completing these steps, simply reboot your system to apply the new settings. 

Note: To see the full list of language codes, visit this Wikipedia article and find the language you need. And here, you can search for a two-letter country code. 

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