diff --git a/exo-mount/exo-mount-hal.c b/exo-mount/exo-mount-hal.c
index 791a536..4b130c3 100644
--- a/exo-mount/exo-mount-hal.c
+++ b/exo-mount/exo-mount-hal.c
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <langinfo.h>
+
 #include <libhal-storage.h>
 
 #include <exo-hal/exo-hal.h>
@@ -616,6 +618,30 @@ oom:  g_set_error (error, G_FILE_ERROR, G_FILE_ERROR_NOMEM, g_strerror (ENOMEM))
 
 
 /**
+ * exo_mount_hal_iocharset:
+ *
+ * Determines the preferred iocharset for filesystems
+ * that support it.
+ *
+ * Return value: iocharset string or %NULL if none.
+ **/
+static const gchar*
+exo_mount_hal_iocharset ()
+{
+  const gchar* cs = g_getenv("EXO_MOUNT_IOCHARSET");
+  if (cs != NULL)
+    return cs;
+
+  const char* codeset = nl_langinfo (CODESET);
+  if (codeset && !strcmp (codeset, "UTF-8"))
+    return "utf8";
+
+  return NULL;
+}
+
+
+
+/**
  * exo_mount_hal_device_mount:
  * @device : an #ExoMountHalDevice.
  * @error  : return location for errors or %NULL.
@@ -676,6 +702,12 @@ exo_mount_hal_device_mount (ExoMountHalDevice *device,
               /* however this one is FreeBSD specific */
               options[n++] = g_strdup ("longnames");
             }
+          else if (strcmp (device->fsoptions[m], "iocharset=") == 0)
+            {
+              const gchar* iocharset = exo_mount_hal_iocharset();
+              if (iocharset != NULL)
+                options[n++] = g_strdup_printf ("iocharset=%s", iocharset);
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/exo-mount/main.c b/exo-mount/main.c
index 80eae1d..f442019 100644
--- a/exo-mount/main.c
+++ b/exo-mount/main.c
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <locale.h>
+
 #include <glib/gstdio.h>
 
 #include <exo-hal/exo-hal.h>
@@ -97,6 +99,8 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
   /* initialize the i18n support */
   xfce_textdomain (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, PACKAGE_LOCALE_DIR, "UTF-8");
 
+  setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
+
   /* initialize GTK+ */
   if (!gtk_init_with_args (&argc, &argv, "Xfce mount", entries, GETTEXT_PACKAGE, &err))
     {