Russifying Ubuntu

Although it may sounds as a daunting task, russifying Ubuntu is rather easy. First, you have to install Russian language support. To do this, choose System → Administration → Language Support. Select Russian from the Supported Languages list, and press Apply to download and install the required packages. Next, you have to add a Russian keyboard layout. Choose System → Preferences → Keyboard and click on the Layout tab. Press the Add button and add the keyborad layout you want. If you’re using a QWERTY-based keyboard, the Phonetic layout might be the best choice. Finally, to quickly switch between different keyboard layouts, you might want to add the Keyboard Indicator applet to the Gnome Panel. To do this, right-click on the Panel and choose Add to Panel. Drag the Keyboard Indicator to the Panel, and you are done. Now you can switch between different languages by simply clicking on the Keyboard Indicator. Source: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty_ru

Unfortunately, the described technique breaks Thunderbird, but the issue is easy to fix. Run the following command:

sudo gedit /usr/bin/thunderbird

and replace the following lines:

#!/bin/sh
#

with:

#!/bin/sh
#
GTK_IM_MODULE=scim-bridge

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