Kernel fun => dreaded "locale not supported" problem

[David Abrahams]

I'm getting a problem I've seen before, and that has been posted about
all over the web, but to which I can't find a solution that works.

When starting gdm, I get the following:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
      LANGUAGE = "en_US:en_GB:en",
      LC_ALL = (unset),
      LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"

  are supported and installed on your system


Inside Gnome, if I type, e.g.

       $ gedit

I get

  Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.  
     Using the fallback 'C' locale

I know I can workaround this by setting LC_ALL=C, but from what I
hear, it's not the right fix.  

Also not a fix:

     sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

(no effect)

How did I get myself in this pickle?  I installed the 2.6.17 kernel
image from the edgy eft repository.  Then I removed it.

I'm beginning to think the only way out is a full reinstall, as that's
the only thing I've seen that works for others with my problem.  And
that just shouldn't be the case.  Help, please, somebody?

Thanks in advance,

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com