[kde-linux] adjust date and time

[Peter Catchlove]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I guess I've got it coming if I use debian 
testing: presumably stable doesn't have this problem. In the meantime, I've 
learnt how to set the time at cli. 
Sounds like I should set the timezone, or be using ntp, since my hwclock 
drifts quite badly, but I'll have to wait until the GUI is working again 
unless there's an easy way of doing these at the cli.
It says you need a permanent connection for ntp. Is there no way it can just 
check against the network once a day or at boot?

thanks again..
Peter C.



On Wednesday 03 November 2010 10:40:26 you wrote:
> 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.