[Xastir] Send message function broken on Ubuntu Linux?

[Tom Russo]

On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:41:36AM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <david.aitcheson at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
> Curt / Tom,
> 
> de Dave KB3EFS
> 
> Not sure if it is Xastir or a Gnome on Ubuntu 14.04.04 issue.
> 
> As recently as this past summer I was able to send a message to a APRS
> mobile from my laptop via APRS-IS.
> 
> Now I can bring up the screen and get the cursor in the correct field
> but when I type a message it does not show up on the screen.
> 
> I refreshed Xastir with the included update script this morning; but I
> am not sure of when this function stopped working.

Cannot reproduce this on my own 14.04 system.  Current code works fine.

How are you launching Xastir?

In the past, I have observed some very strange things if one sets the 
LANG or LOCALE variable to "C" in a desktop launcher on Ubuntu, things like 
losing the ability to type into dialogs.  This used to be the guidance before 
Curt changed the code (a few years ago) to do its own internal setting of 
locale for purposes of reading the config file, and should no longer be 
necessary (and indeed, I have found it to be harmful on my own Ubuntu system 
from time to time).

Try launching Xastir from a terminal window instead of a launcher icon, and
before doing so check your $LANG variable.  When mine is left alone at its
default (en_US.UTF-8) Xastir works just fine on Ubuntu 14.04.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY
Tijeras, NM  

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