How to change the system locale in RHEL3/4/5/6 ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • How should the locale be changed on a system wide / global level?

    • Need to change the LC_CTYPE from utf8 to iso88591.

  • Locale changes are not taking effect or do not persist. How should the locale be permanently changed?

    • When "LANG" in /etc/sysconfig/i18n is modified and the system is rebooted, it's still in utf8.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

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