X11 xdm was a trouble maker LC_CTYPE had to be set globally for slovak stuff to work /etc/enviroment later i removed it from /etc/enviroment and put it into /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99xfree86-common_start when testing localization always use startx debian 3.0 (woody) needed xkeybsel for proper/friendly slovak support also get the xfonts-intl-european and xfonts-biznet- 8859-2 fonts