Operation Manual
9
Changing Language and
Country Settings with YaST
Working in different countries or having to work in a multilingual environment requires
your computer to be set up to support this. openSUSE® can handle different locales
in parallel. A locale is a set of parameters that denes the language and country settings
reected in the user interface.
The main system language was selected during installation and keyboard and time zone
settings were adjusted. However, you can install additional languages on your system
and determine which of the installed languages should be the default.
For those tasks, use the YaST language module as described in Section 9.1, “Changing
the System Language” (page 135). Install secondary languages to get optional localiza-
tions if you need to start applications or desktops in languages other than the primary
one.
Apart from that, the YaST timezone module allows you to adjust your country and
timezone settings accordingly. It also lets you synchronize your system clock against
a time server. For details, refer to Section 9.2, “Changing the Country and Time Settings”
(page 140).
9.1 Changing the System Language
Depending on how you use your desktop and whether you want to switch the entire
system to another language or just the desktop environment itself, there are several
ways to achieve this:
Changing Language and Country Settings with YaST 135