[kde-linux] Re: adjust date and time

[Duncan]

Peter Catchlove posted on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:23:15 +0100 as excerpted:

> I'm running debian squeeze which uses kde 4.4.5.
> When I try to adjust the clock to winter time as user, I now get
> "unable to execute/authenticate the action: 4,"
> when I try to apply the changes, instead of being asked for root
> password.

I prefer not to set that sort of stuff via GUI here, preferring the date 
command on the (root/sudo/su-ed) command line, and on my main machine, I 
have ntpd running to keep it time-synced anyway, so a normal user should 
DEFINITELY not be messing with it.  As such, I don't personally have the 
requisite authorization stuff setup to allow my normal/kde user setup to 
allow that sort of thing, so my personal knowledge of how it works is 
limited.  However...

I do know that kde4 is in the middle of switching between an earlier 
policykit (the authorization framework they're using) implementation and a 
newer one, and it's not uncommon for parts of it to be broken in certain 
distributions at times, as a result.

Meanwhile, if you have your timezone information setup properly, you 
shouldn't have to change anything manually, as the computer will know what 
timezone you're in and whether you have the hardware clock set to UTC 
(preferred if not dual-booting an OS that assume's it's local, MS OSs are 
an example) or local time, and will automatically adjust the time it 
displays based on when the timezone info says it's supposed to chance.  
Note that there's several updates a year to this timezone info, as various 
national or local authorities change their laws regulating when winter vs. 
summer (aka daylight savings, in the US) time starts and ends, and the 
timezone-info is updated accordingly.  But if you keep it updated, as long 
as you have your timezone info set correctly, the system should handle 
everything entirely automatically, and there'll be nothing for you to 
reset. =:^)

If you're having to reset it manually when the time changes, it's because 
you don't have the appropriate system timezone setup.  Now, I don't run 
Debian, so I don't know how they handle that, but that's what I'd be 
researching so I could set it correctly, and then you shouldn't have to 
bother with it after that unless you move.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman