diff --git a/usr/lib/archboot/installer/common.sh b/usr/lib/archboot/installer/common.sh
index 0d0d59698..ccd7c48a2 100644
--- a/usr/lib/archboot/installer/common.sh
+++ b/usr/lib/archboot/installer/common.sh
@@ -158,3 +158,13 @@ auto_packages() {
     PACKAGES="${PACKAGES//\ filesystem\ / }"
     PACKAGES="filesystem ${PACKAGES}"
 }
+
+# /etc/locale.gen
+# enable at least C.UTF-8 if nothing was changed, else weird things happen on reboot!
+locale_gen() {
+    if [[ "${DESTDIR}" == "/install" ]]; then
+        systemd-nspawn -q -D "${DESTDIR}" locale-gen >/dev/null 2>&1
+    else
+        locale-gen >/dev/null 2>&1
+    fi
+}