Installing fresh SharePoint 2013 Server with SP1 onto clean Windows Server 2012 R2 language error

Question

This has got me slightly perplexed. And somewhat frustrated. And completely stressed.

I am trying to install SharePoint 2013 SP1 onto a clean Windows Server 2012 R2 (on a Hyper-V VM). Having finally battled through thick and thin to install the pre-requisites (which was painless in the end!), I am now stuck installing SharePoint. I have downloaded using my MSDN subscription:

As part of this I have had to download the wsssetup.dll file and put it in the updates folder. I have copied the iso files to the C drive to get around the version of dotnetframework installed - see here.

When I install, I am essentially presented with the message:

The language of this installation package is not supported by your system.

Digging into the setup logs I see:

2020/11/19 17:31:16:413::[1636] Resource File Manager : Current user's LCID is [2057].
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Resource File Manager : error : ResourceFileManager does not contain at least one ResourceFile. Unable to find best match ResourceFile for CultureTag=[en-GB].
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Unable to locate a suitable resource file which contains resources that match the current user's Locale [2057].
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Checking the value of 'Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources[PreferredSetupLanguage]'
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Unable to select the language in which to run setup because no setup resource file(s) were located.
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Preparing to prompt user to select the language in which to run setup.exe in (i.e. the culture of the resource file to load.)
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] SELECT_CULTURE : Initializing OSelectCulture UI...
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] SELECT_CULTURE : error : ResourceFileManagerPtr has no language(s) for user to select from.
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Error: Installation of this product requires operating system supplemental language support. ErrorCode: 0(0x0). Failed final attempt to load a setupexe resource file.
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Error: Installation of this product requires operating system supplemental language support. Type: 54::NoSupportedCulture. 
2020/11/19 17:31:16:445::[1636] Showing parent-less message Title: 'Setup Error', Message: 'The language of this installation package is not supported by your system.

Before clicking OK and exiting.

The OS was installed using English (United Kingdom). Curiously I have had to download language pack in Control Panel -> Language manually. I have tried adding the US language through Control Panel. LCID 2057 from the log file is English Great Britain (see here).

I am literally at my wits end. I have had nothing but trouble installing this. Unfortunately I cannot use any other version - political and out of my hands.

According to the setup.exe, it is language neutral:

Recap on steps

1. Create VM
2. Install Windows Server 2012 R2
3. Ran ALL updates until no more to install
4. Enable blocked MS Download URLs to PreRequitiste installer works sucessfully
5. Install SharePoint 2013 PreRequisites
6. Install SharePoint 2013
7. Panic

Other things

I have tried tweaking the registry keys for PreferredSetupLanguage under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources. This did change the LCID in the setup logs, but didn't fix the issue.

Is there some language I need to install? Is there meant to be some resources (resx) somewhere in the setup.exe? Is there a way to see what resources are in there?

Unfortunately Process Monitor hasn't helped fix it, although it did reveal that registry key.

Answer 1

As part of this I have had to download the wsssetup.dll file and put it in the updates folder.

This isn't necessary with SharePoint Server 2013 w/ SP1 ISO.

The English install of SharePoint Server only includes LCID 1033 (en-US) variant of English. You should install Windows Server using LCID 1033, SharePoint, then install the SharePoint Language Pack(s).