Drakclock

[riseringseeker]

One of the many things I love about Linux is the ability to easily show whatever timezone I am currently in. I use this feature a lot, and have come to rely on it to tell me the local time. The only previous problem I've had was in Almaty, but found it depended on what part of the city I was in...

 

I am currently in Hong Kong, and since I was skype'ing friends and family in the states, they all seem to know what time it is where I am. For some reason unknown to me, the time showing at the bottom changed from being correct to being one hour early.

 

I realize in the US tonight is the change to DST, but DST no longer is used in Hong Kong, and at the time of the change, DST had yet to kick in. The only thing that comes to mind is that UTC went over midnight, but this makes no sense, as HK is still UTC + 8. (I *do* wish that UTC was one of the options available to display!)

 

The clock still shows the correct current time at home (CST), verified by www.dateandtime.com and by the person I was talking to at the time I noticed it. Other time zones seem correct, though I have not checked but a few, it is only HK time that is wrong.

 

Is this a glitch that has a fix?

 

I am hoping I get a response to this post....

[ianw1974]

You might be worthwhile turning off DST, and just using ntp instead to synchronise your time. That way, when it changes on an ntp server, you're clock will be updated, and therefore should solve the issue you're experiencing.

 

Hope that helps.

[scarecrow]

Is your machine dualboot, or it's firing just Linux?

[riseringseeker]

You might be worthwhile turning off DST, and just using ntp instead to synchronise your time. That way, when it changes on an ntp server, you're clock will be updated, and therefore should solve the issue you're experiencing.

 

Hope that helps.

 

I guess I was unaware that one could "turn on" DST. I do have NTP installed and running and have "updated" time several times. I am not sure the time changes on the NTP servers, I would imagine they keep time in Z/UTC, but don't really know. I would think it would be left to the local system software to apply the appropriate offset.

 

Odd thing is, later in same the day Hong Kong time again began showing correctly, so out of curiousity I looked at what the system showed for time zones in the US. This was *after* DST kicked in there, and they did *not* show the proper time, but were one hour fast - DST *not* applied - though it should have been.

 

I have a dual boot system, but anymore, the electrons get quite dusty between boots to windoze. I am not even sure why I keep it these days. Windoze time was more screwed up than Linux, and I did nothing with it other than to take a look.

 

Perhaps the electrons are just confused by the time changes in many, but not all of the zones. I'll look at it again when I get to Anchorage later today, and see what it shows.

[scarecrow]

So, if you are dulabooting your clock must be set to "localtime" and not "utc" and you should also avoid using ntp... else you will always encounter problems when switching OS'es.

[AussieJohn]

I use ntp and have never had a time problem when dual booting.

The sensible thing is to select an ntp source in your own country or region. There are literally dozens of them listed in MCC. You also need to set your time scene as LOCAL.

You also need to put a tick in the .....ntpd... in MCC--------------->System --------->Enable or disable the system services. This way it will update automatically whenever you connect to the internet or if you are using adsl then it again does it automatically. Set and forget.

 

John.

Edited April 2, 2006 by AussieJohn

[ianw1974]

Hi John,

 

I found recently that you don't actually need to enable ntpd service. This is a daemon at your end for running your own ntp server. Usually the setting on the clock for ntp is all you need to enable it, but you can leave ntpd set to off, and it'll all work fine.

[scarecrow]

ntp implementation in Windoze is bad... unless you use some good proprietary piece of software to synchronize. Unfortunately I have no good suggestions to make.

But if it works for you without issues, then be happy.

[riseringseeker]

So, if you are dulabooting your clock must be set to "localtime" and not "utc" and you should also avoid using ntp... else you will always encounter problems when switching OS'es.

 

#1 My hardware clock *is* set to local time (in my case US Central time), not Z.

 

#2 Are you saying having the *ability* to dual boot causes problems? I rarely boot to windows anymore and hadn't in over a week before I had the glitch with the time displaying properly..

[riseringseeker]

I use ntp and have never had a time problem when dual booting.

The sensible thing is to select an ntp source in your own country or region. There are literally dozens of them listed in MCC. You also need to set your time scene as LOCAL.

You also need to put a tick in the .....ntpd... in MCC--------------->System --------->Enable or disable the system services. This way it will update automatically whenever you connect to the internet or if you are using adsl then it again does it automatically. Set and forget.

 

John.

 

Thanks John.

 

Before I got crossover installed, I was forced to boot to windows *much* more often than I am now, (now *maybe* once or twice a month, and mostly as a way to check if hardware is functioning more than anything else) and had had no problem previously either. As a matter of fact, I am beginning to wonder why I keep it. I kept it while it was still under warantee, but that has now expired. I learned the hard way unless you have the original configuration (i.e. windoze) getting any help from the manufacturere is near impossible.

 

I just have the NTP source set as the install default source. This laptop goes with me everywhere, so what's close one day will be the other side of the planet the next. In the last 6 days I have overnighted in Anchorage, New York, London, Hong Kong and am now back in Anchorage. This is not overly unusual for me, so you can see just leaving it set to a handy NTP source is much more convenient than changing with every stop I make. I have the hardware clock set to US Central time, which I call home. NTPD *is* checked in MCC.

 

Odd thing is, about 08:00 Hong Kong time is when the time began displaying incorrectly (1 hour early), but times in the US were all showing correctly. Later that same day, around 16:00 HK time, HK time again displayed correctly, but the time zones in the US were off by 1 hour - DST *not* being applied - though by then they should have (at least the Eastern half). This occured without my touching the computer, it was just on, and connected to the `net thru high speed.

 

Now, having arrived once again in Achorage, all the time zones I have looked at again show correctly. It was only *while* DST rolled across the world that the system hicoughed. It is April 3 02:20 Alaska time as I write this.

 

In another forum, I was pointed to a bug report that said some of the DST data is out of date in Mandriva. This may be true, but I have a hard time believing this is the case for HK, as they last time DST was used there was 1980 - 26 years ago!