Re: Is the system clock broken ?

[chris-usenet@roaima.co.uk]

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:45:55 +0000, jens wrote:
> Hi there, I set up a new Debian box with a 2.6 kernel. For some reason or
> other I can't get the system time to be correct. When I do a 'tzconfig' it
> reports me as being in the correct time zone (American/Vancouver) but
> when I do a 'date' command it comes back with UTC time.

There is no "American/Vancouver" timezone. Maybe you mean "America/Vancouver"?


jens <jens@pacificsun.ca> continued:
> My /etc/default/rcS file has an entry of UTC=no in it. When I type 'date'
> at the console I get a UTC date/time listing.

So you've configured your box to run on local time rather than UTC. The
only time you should do this is if you multi-boot a Windows OS on the
same hardware. Otherwise change the setting to UTC=yes and set the BIOS
clock to real UTC time.

Here are some checks to try:

If UTC=yes then this should show UTC time. Otherwise it should show
local time:
	hwclock --show --utc

Regardless of the UTC setting, this should show UTC time:
	date -u

Regardless of the UTC setting, this should show local time:
	TZ=America/Vancouver date

Regardless of the UTC setting, this will show the same as for "date -u",
because there is *no* American/Vancouver time zone:
	TZ=American/Vancouver date

Chris