| Problem | Possible Cause | Solution | |---|---|---| | | Wrong directory placement | Ensure the dictionary folder is placed in /usr/share/stardict/dic/ (system-wide) or ~/.stardict/dic/ (user-specific). Check that the folder contains the three required files (.ifo, .idx, .dict.dz). Restart StarDict after moving. | | sdcv: command not found | sdcv not installed | Install sdcv using your package manager ( sudo apt install sdcv on Debian/Ubuntu). | | bzip2: Compressed file ends unexpectedly | Corrupted or incomplete download | Re-download the dictionary file. Verify the file size against the source. Use bzip2 -tvv filename.tar.bz2 to test the archive integrity. | | Wrong directory structure | Extracted folder inside a folder | Ensure you move the inner directory (the one directly containing .ifo/.idx/.dict files), not the outer wrapper. | | Permission denied errors | Insufficient privileges | Use sudo for system-wide installations, or install to ~/.stardict/dic/ (user directory) without sudo. | | StarDict doesn't load .dict.dz files | Missing dictzip support | StarDict natively supports .dict.dz via dictzip. If issues persist, decompress the .dict.dz file using dictzip -d file.dict.dz to obtain a .dict file. | | DRAE dictionary not in Spanish after installation | Encoding issues | All StarDict strings should be UTF-8 encoded. Ensure your system locale supports UTF-8. | | sdcv -l shows no dictionaries | sdcv not finding dictionaries | sdcv searches /usr/share/stardict/dic and ~/.stardict/dic . Verify your dictionaries are placed correctly. Use sdcv --data-dir /custom/path to specify an alternative directory. |
For a StarDict file to work correctly, it typically requires a specific structure. The file you have ( stardict-drae-24-2.bz2 ) is likely the (usually the .dict or .dict.dz file renamed or archived). stardict drae 24 2 bz2 bz2