Desktop clock not synced with system clock

greenphreak · 08-16-2007, 03:12 PM

Hello.

I'm having problems syncing my system clock with the clock displayed on the desktop on a gnome (2.18.3) & debian etch system. For reference, I'm running ntp in the background, and I'm located in New York (UTC -4).

When I bring up a terminal and type 'date', it responds with the proper time:

Thu Aug 16 16:03:06 EDT 2007

However, the clock program sitting on the upper right corner of my desktop that comes with gnome displays the incorrect time. It shows:

Thu Aug 16 20:03

So, I right click on the desktop clock and select "Adjust Date & Time". This brings up a window that allows me to change the current time and time zone information. It shows that the time zone is set to America/New York, as it should be. It also shows that the time is set to 16:03!?!

I'm quite confused. The only place that is misdisplaying the time is the desktop, and when I go to adjust it, it gives me the correct time. For whatever reason, it seems to be displaying the UTC, as opposed to EDT, which is what I'm telling it to display.

When I right click on the desktop time, and go to preferences, there is a checkbox for "Use UTC". It doesn't matter if it is checked or unchecked, it always displays the UTC time in the window, 4 hours ahead of the local time.

What do you guys think? Everything seems to be working ok, except for this gnome clock app displaying UTC time instead of the real time. I cannot imagine that I'm the only person to experience this problem. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance!

gamewolf · 08-16-2007, 04:17 PM

Try this:

Open up a terminal.
cd to /etc/default
type nano rcS
see if UTC = yes
if so, then change it to no

Let me know how that works out.

greenphreak · 08-17-2007, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamewolf

Try this:

Open up a terminal.
cd to /etc/default
type nano rcS
see if UTC = yes
if so, then change it to no

Let me know how that works out.

I opened up /etc/default/rcS, found the line UTC = yes, and changed it to NO. No change occurred in my gnome clock. Then I rebooted the machine, and there was still no change in the behavior. Thanks for the suggestion, though! This is such a strange problem, I've never heard of people encountering it before.

Any other ideas?

utanja · 08-17-2007, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenphreak

I opened up /etc/default/rcS, found the line UTC = yes, and changed it to NO. No change occurred in my gnome clock. Then I rebooted the machine, and there was still no change in the behavior. Thanks for the suggestion, though! This is such a strange problem, I've never heard of people encountering it before.

Any other ideas?

it has always worked properly for me without adjustment

greenphreak · 08-17-2007, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by utanja

it has always worked properly for me without adjustment

That is the strange thing. This is not a new install. One day a few weeks ago, it spontaneously started behaving like this. It had always worked prior to this. I have no idea what I did to change its behavior.

greenphreak · 08-22-2007, 01:32 PM

I discovered the error, at least, I think I have. As I was running apt-get upgrade today, I looked up and my clock was mysteriously working again!!!

I checked, and sure enough, among the packages upgraded was tzdata:

Code:

(Reading database ... 119324 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace tzdata 2007f-10 (using .../tzdata_2007f-11_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement tzdata ...
Setting up tzdata (2007f-11) ...

Current default timezone: 'America/New_York'
Local time is now:      Wed Aug 22 14:17:31 EDT 2007.
Universal Time is now:  Wed Aug 22 18:17:31 UTC 2007.
Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.

So I guess it was some error in the 2007f-10 version of tzdata. I don't know, but at least it is fixed. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!