Bug#452938: tzdata: Upgrading changes timezone

[Vincent Danjean <Vincent.Danjean@ens-lyon.org>]

Package: tzdata
Version: 2007i-2
Severity: normal

  I have just upgraded my system to current sid and suffer from
the same problem. Here is a precise description of my actions:

My laptop had a correct local time (I often look at the gnome applet...)

This morning, I upgraded it. There was lots of new software (libc, kernel (from
http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel), ...) so I reboot it
immediately after the upgrade.
This means I did not keep the log. And I do not know if the time
was correct or not after the upgrade and before the reboot.

After the reboot, I notice that gnome applet give me the wrong time (UTC
instead of local).
With the command 'date', I saw I was in UTC
I tried the following :
vdanjean@cayuga:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Current default timezone: 'Etc/UTC'
Local time is now:      Mon Nov 26 09:18:29 UTC 2007.
Universal Time is now:  Mon Nov 26 09:18:29 UTC 2007.

vdanjean@cayuga:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Current default timezone: 'Europe/Paris'
Local time is now:      Mon Nov 26 10:18:36 CET 2007.
Universal Time is now:  Mon Nov 26 09:18:36 UTC 2007.

vdanjean@cayuga:~$ date
lundi 26 novembre 2007, 10:18:44 (UTC+0100)

Note: the first time I run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata', I only type 'enter'.
So debconf had register 'Etc/UTC'. I do not know from where.
The second time, I manually select the Europe Areas. And then, Paris has
been automatically pre-selected.

At time moment, the command 'date' give me the correct (local) time.
About 1 min later, without doing anything, the gnome applet correct itself
and shows me the correct (local) time.

  So, I'm pretty sure that the upgrade of this morning (from 2007i-1 to
2007i-2) according to /var/log/dpkg.log modifies my /etc/timezone.


  I tried to reproduce this bug on another machine (Europe/Paris too) by
upgrading tzdata (from 2007i-1 to 2007i-2 too), keeping the original
config files (/etc/timezone, /var/cache/debconf/config.dat).
However, the upgrade has been fine. I kept the Europe/Paris timezone...


  Best regards,
    Vincent

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.23-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages tzdata depends on:
ii  cdebconf [debconf-2.0]        0.125      Debian Configuration Management Sy
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]         1.5.17     Debian configuration management sy

tzdata recommends no packages.

-- debconf information:
  tzdata/Zones/Asia:
  tzdata/Zones/SystemV:
  tzdata/Zones/Pacific:
  tzdata/Zones/Atlantic:
  tzdata/Zones/US:
* tzdata/Zones/Etc: UTC
  tzdata/Zones/Arctic:
  tzdata/Zones/Antarctica:
  tzdata/Zones/America:
* tzdata/Areas: Europe
  tzdata/Zones/Australia:
  tzdata/Zones/Canada:
* tzdata/Zones/Europe: Paris
  tzdata/Zones/Africa:
  tzdata/Zones/Indian: