Subject:Chinese translation incomplete in Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon - Missing language-pack-gnome packages

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
48/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
python

Research direction

Start with the Language Settings GUI flow for installing and applying Chinese language packs, then reproduce the listed Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon steps and inspect which packages are selected. Done means the flow installs the required language-pack-gnome-zh-hans packages so Disks, Nemo, and other affected applications display Chinese after locale regeneration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

1. System Information:

  • Release: Linux Mint 22.3
  • Desktop Environment: Cinnamon
  • Locale: zh_CN.UTF-8

2. Describe the Issue:
When installing Chinese (Simplified) language support via the "Language Settings" GUI, the system is only partially localized. Many core system applications remain in English.

Specifically, I noticed that the following applications were still showing English interfaces:

  • Disks (gnome-disk-utility)
  • Disk Usage Analyzer (baobab)
  • Nemo (File Manager)
  • And various other system utilities.

As a new user, I investigated the package status and found that the GUI tool seems to have missed installing the GNOME-specific language packs, which are essential since these applications rely on the GNOME/GTK translation stack.

3. Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Install Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon.
  2. Go to Language Settings -> Install / Remove Languages.
  3. Add Chinese, China (UTF-8) and click Install Language Packs.
  4. Set Chinese as the main language and click Apply System-Wide.
  5. Reboot or Log out/in.
  6. Open "Disks" or "Nemo" and observe that the interface is still in English.

4. Expected Behavior:
The "Language Settings" tool should automatically install all relevant language packs (including language-pack-gnome-zh-hans) to ensure a consistent localized experience across the Cinnamon desktop.

5. Actual Behavior:
The GUI tool only installs the base language packs, leaving many GTK-based system tools unlocalized.

6. Workaround (How I resolved it):
I manually installed the missing packages and regenerated the locale via the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install language-pack-gnome-zh-hans language-pack-gnome-zh-hans-base
sudo locale-gen zh_CN.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8

After performing these steps, the aforementioned applications displayed correctly in Chinese.

  1. Additional Note:
    Since I am a beginner, I am not entirely sure if this is a dependency logic error in mintlocale or a specific issue with the 22.3 package list, but I hope this information helps in improving the user experience for non-English speakers.
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Python
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Merged PRs (30d)
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