gksu error when locale is set to UTF-8

When using a language with UTF-8, gksu returns an error. For instance, when set to Spanish, and gksu needs to display the ñ character, gksu responds with a warning that is actually an error. (see picture below).

VirtualBox_7.2-32-bit_18_02_2016_14_50_44.png

This causes problems for running applications that require elevated privileges from the menu. I have not yet found a permanent solution.

As a temporary solution, if you must use a language that causes this problem, you can run your applications that require root from a terminal using the gksu command with a LANG variable set to en_US or another language that will not cause the conflict.

LANG=en_US gksu <your_application>

For example, to run gslapt from the terminal, you would issue LANG=en_US gksu gslapt.

The side effect to this is the application you are running will display its interface in the language specified by the value of LANG. But it is a temporary side effect that only affects that one application. The rest of the system will display the language you have selected for your locale.

FWIW, this is not a gksu problem, but rather a common problem when utf-8 is enabled. This is because most bash scripts (like the gksu wrapper) are not written with utf-8 in mind.

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