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OSX wants to install in foreign language

J

Jimmyspangle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2017
5
2
Hey guys. I would REALLY appreciate any help on this. I am sure it must be simple, but I can't work it out.

I bought a faulty 2008 iMac 20" - just a dead hard disk. Changed hard disk and then popped in my Mavericks USB OSX installer. The very first screen it comes to,(ie the main OSX install screen) is in Swedish language!

I managed to stumble my way through a full install and then was able to change the default language and keyboard to British. With me so far?

If I go to the 'disk utilities' most of it is in English, but the colour scheme options are still in Finnish! This is after rebooting and everything else in in English now, with the Swedish language removed as an option.

So, with that all at that stage, I got hold of a Snow Leaopard DVD and tried to install that. Exactly the same thing, on starting up and booting into the DVD, everything is back in Swedish. I cannot see any options to change this. On booting I can select hard disk, recovery or the install USB/DVD.

I must stress that both the USB install OSX and the OSX DVD are standard and do indeed install in English on all my other macs.

Any help MUCH appreciated!
 
J

Jimmyspangle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2017
5
2
You Sir are a STAR!

The ONLY thing I didn't realize is that on the very first screen of the OSX install, the two option are NOT 'cancel' and 'continue' (as I thought) but 'BACK' and 'continue'. Ironically, the problem with it being in Swedish!

But having clicked on the now translated 'back' button, it does indeed give me the option to select English for the install and thus should in theory be the end of that saga. I am just doing the install now and think it will set everything up correctly, but will update later.

Much appreciate your kind help.
 
Last edited:
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hwojtek

hwojtek

macrumors 68020
Jan 26, 2008
2,274
1,277
Poznan, Poland
You're welcome. What intrigues me the most is how the installer decides it's going to fire up in a different language. Is it an EFI variable (clearing NVRAM would then possibly allow the installer to start in default English) or a physical keyboard layout? Location awareness? Bizarre.
 
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J

Jimmyspangle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2017
5
2
It seems that if a previous install was done in a different language, even if was later changed to English within OSX, the next new install will default to that language - which does make sense when you think about it. Hence as this had previously been set up in Swedish, any future installations would default to Swedish unless changed at installation stage, not post installation stage.

I have today installed in English from the start as per your helpful link, and to prove a point I just ran a new install from USB and it defaulted to English, but with the back key I could (if I went mad) change that to Swedish again, of French etc at that beginning stage again.

For any future members with a similar problem, no matter what the language on the screen at the beginning of the OSX install, once you see the OSX symbol you will have a left button and a right button. The left button (no matter what language it is in) is 'BACK' and by clicking that you will be able to select the default installation language at that point.
 
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D

daflake

macrumors 6502a
Apr 8, 2008
920
4,329
Bart Kela said:
Just for future reference, if you have a smartphone, there's an app called Google Translate that can translate real time using the camera.

Just point it at the computer screen.
Click to expand...

Had no idea the app would do that, I usually just plug the text in! Thanks for the heads up. I live in Germany and often have to translate French and Italian. This will come in handy!
 
hwojtek

hwojtek

macrumors 68020
Jan 26, 2008
2,274
1,277
Poznan, Poland
Jimmyspangle said:
It was installed on a fully erased hard disk.
Click to expand...
So how on Earth did the installer know that the OS was installed in Swedish before? On an erased disk there is no trace of the OS whatsoever...
Unknown.jpeg
 
J

Jimmyspangle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2017
5
2
hwojtek said:
So how on Earth did the installer know that the OS was installed in Swedish before? On an erased disk there is no trace of the OS whatsoever...
View attachment 738415
Click to expand...

The OSX was obviously set up in Swedish at some point. I buy the mac, remove the faulty hard disk, install a completely formatted hard disk, reassemble and then insert my USB thumb drive and we all speak Swedish!

I can only assume, that during the previous OSX install the BIOS must get told to be Swedish? Doesn't make sense to me either.
 
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