time zone woes

**nishtya** · 09-11-2004, 03:56 PM

oh I can't believe I am having so much trouble here. Got cable, so thought it would be nice to add a time syncing. Installed ntp-simple. Then the trouble began. Not only won't it work (command ntpdate says no servers can be used, yes there are permissions for time and ntp in iptable and I am trying as root) but my local time zone is now utc. Nothing will budge that. Where is local time zone "set"?????????? I can change the time zone it "shows" in tray but that is not the local time zone according to this system now, local is utc. Should be eastern us (EDT right now).

I had quit smoking. I am going out to buy a pack now.

**CrashedAgain** · 09-11-2004, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by nishtya

oh I can't believe I am having so much trouble here. Got cable, so thought it would be nice to add a time syncing. Installed ntp-simple. Then the trouble began. Not only won't it work (command ntpdate says no servers can be used, yes there are permissions for time and ntp in iptable and I am trying as root) but my local time zone is now utc. Nothing will budge that. Where is local time zone "set"?????????? I can change the time zone it "shows" in tray but that is not the local time zone according to this system now, local is utc. Should be eastern us (EDT right now).

I had quit smoking. I am going out to buy a pack now.

You will be prompted for root password, so if you haven't set one yet set it now.
Then right click on the time display, select 'adjust date & time' , enter root password, set your timezone from the dropdown select, readjust your time because it will advance/retard according to the time zone change, 'apply' changes & OK to exit. Then rt click on the time display again & set 'show timezone' to local. Then logout 'end session only' to restart x & it should be done. It should log back in automatically.

Se also this post:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12689

**nishtya** · 09-11-2004, 04:36 PM

Crashed, thanks for replying but I have been through that repeatedly. I hit apply, ok, the whle enchilada. But it never changes to EDT. It remains UTC even though I am choosing EDT in the drop down and applying. A reboot shows in the boot screen UTC is local as well. Something got misconfigured and I cannot find where. aaaaaaaaargh

wish I had webspace to post a screencapture of the dialog for timesetting. There is something wrong and maybe I need to drop to a CLI or find a config file. I am thinking I managed to hose this install. It isn't just kde that is screwed up, if I let ntpdate do its thing it will even change my bios clock to the utc time. Because damn it believe that is local timezone.. aaaaaaaargh nicotine here I come

**nishtya** · 09-11-2004, 04:54 PM

also fwiw, the timezone file in /etc does state America/New_York. I don't know what/where is overriding it

**nishtya** · 09-11-2004, 05:45 PM

once again, poor form to respond to myself but as usual, for the next poor slob:

I looked at the changelog for deb's timezoneconf, noted there about how they : * debian/postinst: Create a symlink from /etc/localtime to
/usr/share/zoneinfo/, instead of copying the latter to
the former. (Closes: #131837)
way back in 2002
hmmmm
noted I didn't have the file /etc/localtime although my zoneinfo was pointing to it. I did a search on the partition with my BH4 install. BINGO, I had a localtime, copied it to this install. Reboot. Hooray, I am back in the USA.

What the heck happened? How did the installation of ntp-simple (get the "simple" part) cause my localtime to go POOF?

I will update my time manually. No problem. (not smoking yet but linux will be the death of me)
Nish

**el_supremo** · 09-11-2004, 08:51 PM

FYI: NTP is probably overkill for most users. It's much easier to use "rdate" which is already in Knoppix. Choose a Stratum 2 server nearest you from the list at: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/servers.html
(see the link at the bottom of the page), check that you can get an answer from it:

Code:

rdate -p strat2.server.name

and then put this command in knoppix.sh:

Code:

rdate strat2.server.name

or perhaps you can put this:

Code:

sudo rdate strat2.server.name

in .profile (I haven't tried this).

Best Wishes
Pete

**nishtya** · 09-12-2004, 01:21 AM

hmmm thanks, Pete. If it is in knoppix it is probably in here. Will give it a try if ntp gives me any more grief.

Actually turned out to be a bug. Kano has a script for it - I love those scripts but really wish there was some descriptions or a faq on when to use or NOT to use them. I generally peak in there to see what they are going to do. And to be on the safe side I made a backup of that localtime file.

**SunnyB** · 09-12-2004, 03:05 AM

I'm glad you got your problem worked out but I would like to hear more about what you're smoking?

Gimme' some. I need it.

**jMon54** · 12-25-2004, 06:28 AM

rdate does not work for me, i get "command not found" even if i sudo and even after running apt-get install (which just tells me i have the newest version)

any ideas what i am doing wrong?

**CrashedAgain** · 12-25-2004, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by jMon54

rdate does not work for me, i get "command not found" even if i sudo and even after running apt-get install (which just tells me i have the newest version)

any ideas what i am doing wrong?

any output from man rdate? I can't check, don't have rdate on my kanotix bh9a. Use find, search /etc and /usr (probably /usr/bin or /usr/sbin ) for the executable then issue the command using the full path. might be in /etc/init.d since time sycning is probably a startup thing.
all this is just guessing!