What is UTC or GMT Time in openSUSE 12.3/12.2

English Open Chat
#1

Prior to 1972, this time was called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but is now referred to as Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). In openSUSE, UTC time will be selected by default if Windows is not detected. Normally, a Linux only, not a dual boot installation, should use UTC time. However, if you really do dual boot between openSUSE and Windows, then using UTC time will not work properly as Windows does not seem to handle this setting. This can cause a fight for your digital clock on each swap between the two Operating Systems.

Have a look on the subject here: SDB:Configuring the clock - openSUSE

And for those that wonder where in all of this that they fit, have a look at the UTC chart you can find here: What is UTC or GMT Time? & UTC/GMT TIME CHART

Now, when you install openSUSE, you can see in this snapshot below, that UTC time has been selected.

864×622 59 KB

The normal solution, if you dual boot with Windows, would be to uncheck this option as shown in the snapshot below and select the Next button on the bottom right:

859×631 58.1 KB

But, alas, it does not always seem to work and later, you will find that UTC is still selected. So, what we suggest after you have completed your openSUSE installation is to open up a terminal session and execute one of the two following commands. The first would be the default if you do not dual boot with Windows and the second is recommended if you DO dual boot with Windows.

  1. For a UTC Setting Do this (recommended for users that don’t dual boot with Windows):
su - 

echo -e "0.0 0 0.0
0
UTC" > /etc/adjtime
  1. For a LOCAL Setting Do this (recommended for users that DO dual boot with Windows):
su - 

echo -e "0.0 0 0.0
0
LOCAL" > /etc/adjtime

You most likely need to restart openSUSE for a manual edit of this file to work properly. It is OK to use Local time no matter your reason if you wish to. Since this seems to be an issue with the DVD installation disk, it will likely remain that way for the entire life of openSUSE 12.2.

Please, If you have any comments on this issue, let me know what they are.

Thank You for using openSUSE!
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#2

To add some clarification.

This is about the checkbox called “Hardware Clock Set To UTC” (as the screenshot above shows). Thus this is has nothing to do with the time the Linux kernel is using internaly (that is allways relative to the Epoch and thus UTC). It is about the time that is stored in the CMOS clock at shutdown and that is read back at boot.

When this is a surprise to you (or a mystery) you should realy read the page which is allready mentioned above: SDB:Configuring the clock - openSUSE

#3

If you use Windows 7 you can use the UTC setting if you do the change to W7 explained here: <http://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3AConfiguring_the_clock#Other_OS>

#4

Let us have a look at the process. First we start YaST:

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/42580158

Hardware Clock set to UTC is unchecked. Make sure the correct time zone is checked. Now lets select the Change Button:

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/34761120

Here is what I have in Change Date & Time Window. Next I hit the Configure button:

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/28874014

I removed the undisciplined local clock after I made sure I could contact the selected Server.

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/75879333

Then I pressed OK, Accept and OK again as I remember.

Thank You,

#5

It is Possible to setup Windows & openSUSE to use UTC and still have your local time zone shown right in both. It may help in preventing Windows from fighting with openSUSE over the Real Time Clock setting. Don’t forget that if you elect to use UTC in openSUSE, that the clock function in the Task Bar also must be set to your local time zone.

In openSUSE and after having selected UTC and restarted openSUSE, in KDE right click on the clock and select Digital Clock Settings. On the Left Select Time Zones, uncheck UTC and check your local Time Zone and you should be good.

Next, For Windows 7 or 8, you must Run regedit and select the following key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]

Add the following value: “RealTimeIsUniversal”=dword:00000001

Restart your PC after making this change. To check how things are going, boot back and forth between Windows and openSUSE a couple of times to see what you get.

Thank You,

#6

one thing i noticed was if we set the region in the map the language settings are not changing automatically.
I know that it will cause issue if we tightly couple things like it will prevent me from using Eng as language if set ho chi minh as my location. But yast should suggest that it will try and change the language settings.

#7

FYI:
Sadly, as I was amidst of thoroughly vetting the idea of utilizing the “RealTimeIsUniversal” w7 registry hack, I found micro$ucks own dire warnings against this replete with claims it could render one’s pc unresponsive during auto-time chages etc.

#8

[QUOTE=vazhavandan;bt607]one thing i noticed was if we set the region in the map the language settings are not changing automatically.
I know that it will cause issue if we tightly couple things like it will prevent me from using Eng as language if set ho chi minh as my location. But yast should suggest that it will try and change the language settings.[/QUOTE]

It is an interesting thought to change your language based on your Time Zone. I am not sure that would fly, but why not make a request for it in openFATE?

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Openfate

Once its done, post a message in the Chit-Chat forum with a link to your request and get others to vote the idea up. You never know what might happen.

Thank You,

#9

FYI:
Sadly, as I was amidst of thoroughly vetting the idea of utilizing the “RealTimeIsUniversal” w7 registry hack, I found micro$ucks own dire warnings against this replete with claims it could render one’s pc unresponsive during auto-time chages etc.

So I take M$ warnings with a grain of salt I guess. In my case, I have one PC I use as a PVR as a dual boot with openSUSE 12.2 and Windows 8 using UTC on both and it works just fine after the W8 mod I mentioned and switching back and forth is no problem.

Thank You,

#10

>>>>It is an interesting thought to change your language based on your Time Zone. I am not sure that would fly, but why not make a request for it in openFATE?
Done.Thanks.
https://features.opensuse.org/314660

#11

[QUOTE=jdmcdaniel3;bt610]So I take M$ warnings with a grain of salt I guess. In my case, I have one PC I use as a PVR as a dual boot with openSUSE 12.2 and Windows 8 using UTC on both and it works just fine after the W8 mod I mentioned and switching back and forth is no problem.

Thank You,[/QUOTE]

I can verify (because it just happened to me this past DL savings time change), if you have your Clock set to “Local” instead of UTC your machine will not automatically make the time change. Even went so far as to submit to bugzilla and discovered the documented “feature” minutes later. Since “local” is the recommended setting for a dual-boot with Windows, I assume implementing NTP would be the workaround.

TSU

#12

Thank you so much. I was so confused after installing 12.2 and setting (or I thought so!) to local time. Setting time on a computer should never be so annoying!

There’s a patch that created /etc/adjtime (it was not there immediately after install). But it seems that the patch just dumps a generic UTC line.

#13

[QUOTE=p_barill;bt637]Thank you so much. I was so confused after installing 12.2 and setting (or I thought so!) to local time. Setting time on a computer should never be so annoying!

There’s a patch that created /etc/adjtime (it was not there immediately after install). But it seems that the patch just dumps a generic UTC line.[/QUOTE]

Happy to hear that this Blog was helpful to you and further, we need all the comments you can make. Only through your help can we make this process better. Thank you for your kind words.

Thank You,

#14

I was wondering how to solve this annoying bug… hell , looks like i have to stop by your blog more often :wink: