Re: buster netinst timezone
On Sat 10 Aug 2019 at 09:25:22 (+0000), Russell L. Harris wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 08:56:01PM +1200, Richard Hector wrote:
> > That's true of the timestamps that are part of the filesystem metadata,
> > but not true of any timestamps included in the file content itself - eg
> > as part of log lines. I don't know which Russell is concerned about.
>
> In the non-expert mode, the Buster installer suggested that if the
> user requires a time zone other than those shown, he should go back to
> the COUNTRY menu and select a country in the time zone he desired.
>
> One thing which concerned me about that suggestion was the possibility
> of changing the locale settings, with the result that, for example,
> the system might be using a British spelling checker rather than an
> American spelling checker, and perhaps pounds and pence rather than
> dollars and cents.
>
> Why would the installer suggest to the non-expert user such a
> complicated fix, rather than presenting to the non-expert user the
> same timezone menu presented to the expert user?
>
> As to file creation and access datestamps, what time is shown by, for
> example, the "ls -al" command if I select central time zone? Do I see
> Central times, or UTC? When examining file creation and access times,
> I simply wish all files always to be datestamped in UTC.
I think that having the entire machine set to UTC for all users is
unusual, but if that's what you want, then it's unlikely that you
don't have root access. Assuming that is so, then the normal course
of action is:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
and then select "None of the above". This will give you a list of
GMT-based timezones as well as UTC. (If you care about the difference
between them, or TAI and the business of leap seconds, then you've
more reading to do.)
The debian-installer tries to keep things a little simpler, and guide
the majority of people towards typical choices.
If you're desparate to get the timezone altered earlier in your
installation process, you could always do it manually: try switching
to VC2 and editing the file /target/etc/timezone to the string UTC
(the alternatives are simply the names of the files in
/usr/share/zoneinfo, including subdirectories). Obviously wait until
the file exists. (I've not tried this so I don't know when that is.)
Cheers,
David.
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