How (not) to set the time and date :)

[Jesse]

Ok, just when through regular daylight savings changeover and realised there wasn't an easy way to change the computers clock...

open up a start -> Run -> RXVT terminal emulator

type in to look like this:

# date --s "12:50:00 2005/10/3"

change the numbers to suit you, 12:50pm, 3rd day of October 2005.

Note that if you change the time to a "future time" you may activate the screen saver, just wiggle the mouse.

Jesse

[Jesse]

that actually didn't work so well, when I rebooted the change went away, so I changed the time in bios...

Jesse

[BarryK]

Doesn't "Control panel -> Set date and time" do it?

[hyper]

Set time zone doesnt work for me , doesnt change anything

[Guest]

I'n not really sure how to do this but couldn't we set up puppy to get the time from an ntp server?

[dewdrop]

Hi Barry and Jesse.

There is a dotpup that seems to work with the my machine at least....but, even though it is a dotpup, it is not listed on either dotpup page (GuessToo or Other Contributors). I think it is from MU (forum name).

The name it is listed under on the Forum is: set-time-for-puppy.pup - in the additional software thread....I wished I knew how to set a trail to it from this thread, but that is beyond me at the moment.

I think providing this one as a program ready to run from the START menu would be a plus.

dewdrop

[MU]

it is in the start-menue:
start - control panel - set date and time

For a ntp-alternative see next post from G2.
Mark

[GuestToo]

couldn't we set up puppy to get the time from an ntp server?

you could use the Set Clock from the Internet dotpup package from my dotpups page

[dewdrop]

it is in the start-menue:
start - control panel - set date and time

For a ntp-alternative see next post from G2.
Mark

Hi,

Once I had downloaded this dotpup and installed it, and rebooted the computer it showed up on the START menu in an area labelled DOTPUPS....it is the only one listed there.....see the attached "printscreen".

As far as the alternative from G2, that program was not as easy to manipulate - set time/date - as this one....IMHO

dewdrop

EDIT - after reading MU's post - the one after this post, I went to the START menu and did find the program under CONTROL PANEL - set date and time..as Barry stated earlier..... so my face is red from embarrassment... BTW, I am using Puppy 1.0.6, so yes, it is included in the latest version of Puppy.

dewdrop

[MU]

I released it as a dotpup first, but since Puppy 1.0.5 or 1.0.6 it should be in the control-panel.

Mark

[GuestToo]

As far as the alternative from G2, that program was not as easy to manipulate - set time/date - as this one....IMHO

i'm not sure if you mean my program is easier or harder to use

i can't imagine how my program could be much easier to use

basically, you click the Set Hardware Clock button ... see picture

the time zone must be configured properly first ... there's a convenient button to run the Time Zone Wizard

[dewdrop]

i'm not sure if you mean my program is easier or harder to use

Hi G2.

I was trying to say that I felt that MU's set time program was easier to use than yours - with my particular mix of knowledge of Linux, Puppy, computers in general, and my mix of hardware.

However, I know that Puppy is experimental, and from just a short time looking at the various topics on the Forum, it is very apparent that not all programs work on all of the various hardware setups. So, the variety of answers to solve the same kind of challanges are always welcome in Puppy. Your set time program is one of those "many ways" to answer the same challange.

In the States, I had my HP printer working, thanks to Rarsa, and somehow I was able to get the sound to work too. Here, with a new machine, and a different brand of printer (a Canon 1000 - which is listed as one of those that are supported by Puppy - and why it doesn't work is a mystery to me), I have neither a printer nor sound --- yet!!

I am continuing to experiment with the printer and the sound, and I fully expect to get both working again - with the help from the Forum and my own experimentation.

dewdrop

[GuestToo]

apparent that not all programs work on all of the various hardware setups

hwclock, that my Clock Setting program uses, definitely does not work with all hardware ... see Puppy's hwclock documentation
file:///usr/share/doc/hwclock.htm

running a clock setting program on some machines might even cause it to crash, or corrupt the clock and/or bios settings ... this is partly why i included the Set System Time button ... so you could safely experiment without affecting the clock chip

[Pupjer]

Nothing works for me, I can't use internat time, nor can I set the time using the START, CONTROL PANEL, SET TIME thingi. When I use interent time it says that the time has NOT been changed, and the same for the Tiime zone. HELP

[dewdrop]

Nothing works for me, I can't use internat time, nor can I set the time using the START, CONTROL PANEL, SET TIME thingi. When I use interent time it says that the time has NOT been changed, and the same for the Tiime zone. HELP

Hi Pupjer,

This might sound odd, but as a suggestion, have you tried using a different window manager and using the various set time programs? If you are in JWM, try ICEwm, and vis-a-versa.

I'm sure you've figured out by now, Puppy is an experimenter's heaven.....some things work for a lot of people, some things work for very few, so the word of the day is: experiment until you find what works for you, then tell everyone on the Forum, at least what works for you...

dewdrop

[GuestToo]

i just downloaded and installed my "Set Clock from the Internet" dotpup package, and it seems to work properly ... i clicked the Set Hardware Clock button and it did ... it might be necessary to reboot after changing the time zone

if you have Puppy 1.0.8, did you install MU's bugfix for the clock setting program?
http://dotpups.de/puppy-releases/1.0.8r1/bugfixes/

[Dyno Spoid]

rdate can be automaticaly scheduled from a cron job if you have an always on Internet connection.

Set Clock from the Internet can be used if you don't have an always on Internet connection.

Both don't take Daylight Savings Time into consideration, so the clock will be off during DST.

[GuestToo]

i did not know whether the hardware clock would be adjusted by "another operating system" or not, so i assumed that Puppy is using local time and i assumed that the time zone would be set for your location and to take into account daylight saving or not

in other words, if you set the time zone to match the time offset for the time of year, it should always display the correct time

using UTC is simpler, but not if you dual boot

maybe there's a more automatic way to do it, that takes into account all of the factors

[Béèm]

I run Puppy 2.02-seamonkey with KDE 3.5.4
The timezone is UTC and I see no way to change that.
Apparently no other timezone is available in Control Center.
This results in the time displayed in the systray displayed 2 hours earlier as I am in GMT+2 (daylight saving included)

I hope someone knows how to set the clock display correct.

[Dyno Spoid]

----- -----
SET THE SYSTEM TIME AUTOMATICALLY
----- -----
To set the system time on boot, edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the following lines:
---
# to automatically set the time on boot, un-comment the next line
rdate -s time.nist.gov ; hwclock --systohc --localtime
# Note: A nearby time server address can be obtained from:
# http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Servers/Str ... imeServers
# Make sure to issue the rdate command on the command line before
# including it in the croncore file to ensure you can connect to the
# time server.
# Note: If you are configuring multiple machines, it's a good idea to
# configure one of them that's usually running as a local time server,
# and the others to look at the local time server.
---
NOTE: Although the following lines will set the time every four hours, it's still a good idea to set the system time as soon as the system starts. The system startup delay on Puppy Linux is minimal (about two seconds) if the time server can't be reached.

To update the clock, use a text editor to create 'croncore':
---
# use /bin/sh to run commands, no matter what /etc/passwd says
SHELL=/bin/sh

# Syntax: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week command
# minute: Clock minutes must equal this for command to execute, 0 to 59
# hour: Use 24-hour format, from 0 to 23
# day-of-month: 3 is the third, etc., 1 to 31
# month: 1 to 12
# day-of-week: 0 to 7, both 0 and 7 are Sunday
# day-of-week is in addition to day-of-month, so: 00 3 1,15 * 5 command
# runs at 3 AM on the 1st and 15th of every month, plus every Friday.
# Example to back up the system at 5:45 PM the first of every month:
# 45 17 1 * * /mnt/home_office/core_commands/system_backup
# See crontab-5 for more information
#
#
# Set the time of day every 4 hours.
# Note: A nearby time server address can be obtained from:
# http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Servers/Str ... imeServers
# Make sure to issue the rdate command on the command line before
# including it in the croncore file to ensure you can connect to the
# time server.
# Note: If you are configuring multiple machines, it's a good idea to
# configure one of them that's usually running as a local time server,
# and the others to look at the local time server.
0 0-23/4 * * * rdate -s time.nist.gov ; hwclock --systohc --localtime
---
NOTE: Only the last line is needed.

Add in whatever commands are in the crontab file. Use 'crontab -l' to list the crontab contents. NOTE: 'crontab -e' is usually used to edit the crontab file, but it doesn't work in busybox.

Activate the croncore file: 'crontab croncore'
NOTE: This will overwrite the current crontab file, so make sure all relevent commands are added to croncore.

Start the cron daemon at boot so crontab is read by adding it to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
---
# start the cron daemon
crond
---

To start the cron daemon immediately, type: crond

NOTE: rdate may not take Daylight Savings Time into consideration, so you may need to adjust your timezone by adding one hour during DST:
/Menu/Control Panel/Set timezone
Example: Central Time = GMT-6, choose GMT-5 during DST
- You will probably have to reboot for this to fully take effect.
- This should set the correct time in BIOS if you were previously having DST problems.
- This may affect other operating systems that take DST into account. Some operating systems (including some Linux configurations) require the BIOS clock to be at GMT, or at your timezone without accounting for DST, so there is no problem with timestamps during the change to/from DST. I haven't had any problems, but your milage may vary. I can say that Microsoft Windows has problems with timestamps on MS Windows file servers when 'Automatically adjust clock for DST' is not set on the workstation.