diff --git a/roles/rpi-base/defaults/main.yml b/roles/rpi-base/defaults/main.yml
index ce50bea..8870913 100644
--- a/roles/rpi-base/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/rpi-base/defaults/main.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #### locale ####
-default_locale: 'en-US.UTF-8'
+default_locale: 'en_US.UTF-8'
 locales:
-  - 'en-US.UTF-8'
+  - 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8'
 
 tz: America/Chicago
diff --git a/roles/rpi-base/handlers/main.yml b/roles/rpi-base/handlers/main.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 16fe890..0000000
--- a/roles/rpi-base/handlers/main.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-- name: locale-gen
-  shell: locale-gen
-  become: yes
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/roles/rpi-base/tasks/locale.yml b/roles/rpi-base/tasks/locale.yml
index b39683f..126db02 100644
--- a/roles/rpi-base/tasks/locale.yml
+++ b/roles/rpi-base/tasks/locale.yml
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
-- name: LOCALE | build locales
+- name: LOCALE | configure locales
   lineinfile:
     path: /etc/locale.gen
-    regexp: '#\s*{{item}}'
-    line: '{{item}}'
+    regexp: '#\s*({{item | regex_escape()}}[\s\w]*)'
+    line: '\1'
+    backrefs: yes
     state: present
   with_items: "{{locales}}"
-  notify: locale-gen
+
+- name: LOCALE | generate locales
+  shell: locale-gen
 
 - name: LOCALE | set default locale
-  template:
-    src: etc/default/locale.j2
-    dest: /etc/default/locale
\ No newline at end of file
+  shell: update-locale LANG={{default_locale}}
diff --git a/roles/rpi-base/templates/etc/default/locale.j2 b/roles/rpi-base/templates/etc/default/locale.j2
deleted file mode 100644
index 8724774..0000000
--- a/roles/rpi-base/templates/etc/default/locale.j2
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-LOCALE="{{default_locale}}"
\ No newline at end of file