Flatpak "Invalid byte sequence in conversion input" with mismatched locales

[viemarimyyra]

Application is stuck on Loading the dashboard with either demo, local ip, local URL or external URL set as the server address. I tried disabling firewall, manually setting the default routes and checked Flatpak permissions for Butler. Am I missing something or is the application just broken? Server works brilliantly from the same computer with a Firefox and with Firefox (Flatpak).

Butler v1.0.2 on EndeavourOS (x84-64), kernel 6.6.10-arch1-1 with Budgie Desktop.

[cassidyjames]

I'm not sure what could be happening exactly, as I can't reproduce this here on Fedora Silverblue, Endless OS, or Raspberry Pi OS. 😞

Can you try running it from a terminal (flatpak run com.cassidyjames.butler) and share any output?

Running from a terminal will also enable the built-in WebKit developer tools, but it sounds like you're not even getting to the WebKit screen (the loading screen is native GTK and hides once the WebKit WebView signals it's done loading).

[viemarimyyra]

Yeah, here's the output:

(com.cassidyjames.butler:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 13:35:31.708: Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale. flatpak-spawn: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input Try "flatpak-spawn --help" for more information.

Also checked with verbose and got some extra lines that might be useful, but the end result was the same:

F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Skipping parental controls check for app/com.cassidyjames.butler/x86_64/stable since parental controls are disabled globally
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: /var/lib/flatpak/runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/45/e6f142e232584a0575c084d3d619fc5a81b73f39b84d939672f2fd91fb284f63/files/lib32 does not exist
F: Cleaning up unused container id 3712442554
F: Cleaning up per-app-ID state for com.cassidyjames.butler
F: Allocated instance id 721838698
F: Add defaults in dir /com/cassidyjames/butler/
F: Add locks in dir /com/cassidyjames/butler/
F: Allowing host-fs access
F: Allowing wayland access
F: Allowing x11 access
F: Allowing pulseaudio access
F: Pulseaudio user configuration file '/home/viemarimyyra/.config/pulse/client.conf': Error opening file /home/viemarimyyra/.config/pulse/client.conf: No such file or directory
F: CUPS configuration file '/home/viemarimyyra/.cups/client.conf': Error opening file /home/viemarimyyra/.cups/client.conf: No such file or directory
F: CUPS configuration file '/etc/cups/client.conf': Error opening file /etc/cups/client.conf: No such file or directory
F: Allowing session-dbus access
F: Allowing system-dbus access
F: Running 'bwrap --args 41 xdg-dbus-proxy --args=43'
F: Running 'bwrap --args 41 com.cassidyjames.butler'

(com.cassidyjames.butler:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 13:40:16.307: Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale. flatpak-spawn: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input Try "flatpak-spawn --help" for more information.

And the verbose output when the default permissions are set in Flatseal, problem still remains:

F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Skipping parental controls check for app/com.cassidyjames.butler/x86_64/stable since parental controls are disabled globally
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/viemarimyyra/.local/share/flatpak
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: /var/lib/flatpak/runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/45/e6f142e232584a0575c084d3d619fc5a81b73f39b84d939672f2fd91fb284f63/files/lib32 does not exist
F: Cleaning up unused container id 2525701588
F: Cleaning up per-app-ID state for com.github.tchx84.Flatseal
F: Allocated instance id 97379606
F: Add defaults in dir /com/cassidyjames/butler/
F: Add locks in dir /com/cassidyjames/butler/
F: Allowing dri access
F: Allowing wayland access
F: Allowing x11 access
F: Running 'bwrap --args 39 xdg-dbus-proxy --args=42'
F: Running 'bwrap --args 39 com.cassidyjames.butler'

(com.cassidyjames.butler:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 13:53:18.274: Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale. flatpak-spawn: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input Try "flatpak-spawn --help" for more information.

[cassidyjames]

@viemarimyyra hm, what language do you have set for your user?

[viemarimyyra]

English, UK to be exact. Input language and currencies etc. are set to Finnish.

[karco]

I have the same issue on ZorinOS 17 (Ubuntu 22.04)

The software worked normally for a while. On the other hand, I don't know if it's related, but I cleaned up the installed languages.

(com.cassidyjames.butler:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:28:49.718: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
flatpak-spawn: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input
Try "flatpak-spawn --help" for more information.

LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
LC_CTYPE="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_NAME=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=fr_CA.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

[Sturmkater]

Same here:

	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
flatpak-spawn: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input
Try "flatpak-spawn --help" for more information.

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_TIME=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_NAME=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_CH.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

[cassidyjames]

Apparently this is a bug in Flatpak itself; I'll see it there's a way I can work around it, but I'm not sure.

flatpak/flatpak#5564

[MediaElf]

This only happens in version 1.1.1
When I rolled back to version 1.1 everything went back to normal in French, Russian and other locales
Thank you

[akosiaris]

Hi, thanks for this app.

I met the same issue today, first time I installed this app (so I got version 1.1.1, if that matters, which I am pretty sure it doesn't). Given the comment above I also rolled back to 1.1 and 1.0.3, to no avail.

The PS1 trick mentioned in flatpak/flatpak#5564 did work but well, it's suboptimal of course.

So, running using PS1= flatpak run com.cassidyjames.butler the app worked but I still got the Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale.

locale is a bit messy (I want some things en_US like and some el_GR like):

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=el_GR.utf8
LC_TIME=el_GR.utf8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=el_GR.utf8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=el_GR.utf8
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT=el_GR.utf8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"

What actually fixed this for me was

flatpak --user config --set extra-languages el followed by a flatpak update. Double checked that flatpak info org.gnome.Platform.Locale/x86_64/46 said Subdirectories: /el,/en

and then the app started normally.

[MediaElf]

Hi, thanks for this app.

I met the same issue today, first time I installed this app (so I got version 1.1.1, if that matters, which I am pretty sure it doesn't). Given the comment above I also rolled back to 1.1 and 1.0.3, to no avail.

The PS1 trick mentioned in flatpak/flatpak#5564 did work but well, it's suboptimal of course.

So, running using PS1= flatpak run com.cassidyjames.butler the app worked but I still got the Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale.

locale is a bit messy (I want some things en_US like and some el_GR like):

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=el_GR.utf8
LC_TIME=el_GR.utf8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=el_GR.utf8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=el_GR.utf8
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT=el_GR.utf8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"

What actually fixed this for me was

flatpak --user config --set extra-languages el followed by a flatpak update. Double checked that flatpak info org.gnome.Platform.Locale/x86_64/46 said Subdirectories: /el,/en

and then the app started normally.

Sorry, but for me it's still not working...

Any ideas ? I'm running on Elementary OS 7.1 :)
Thank you

[jmcjm]

I'm on Fedora Silverblue 39.20240403.0 and my locales are

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_TIME=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=pl_PL.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

and in order for Butler to work, I had to add LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 as variable in Butler config in Flatseal