Bug 825369

Created attachment 615606 [details]
.xsession-errors: "datetime-cc-panel-WARNING **: Timezone '' is unhandled, setting Europe/London as default"

After a clean F17 net install in a VM, this bug still exists. The time zone was set to America/Los Angeles during installation. The date & time dialog was bypassed in firstboot.

.xsession-errors shows this line repeatedly:
(gnome-control-center:1164): datetime-cc-panel-WARNING **: Timezone '' is unhandled, setting Europe/London as default

On the newly installed F17 system:

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ rpm -q control-center firstboot
control-center-3.4.2-1.fc17.x86_64
firstboot-17.3-1.fc17.x86_64

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ rpm -qf /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timedated
systemd-44-17.fc17.x86_64

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ ls -lF /etc/localtime
-rw-r--r--. 3 root root 2819 Jul 20 09:35 /etc/localtime

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ date; zdump /etc/localtime
Fri Sep 21 12:22:33 PDT 2012
/etc/localtime  Fri Sep 21 12:22:33 2012 PDT

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/clock
# The time zone of the system is defined by the contents of /etc/localtime.
# This file is only for evaluation by system-config-date, do not rely on its
# contents elsewhere.
ZONE="America/Los Angeles"

Command-line:
$ qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda f17-test-1.img -cdrom ~/xfr/fedora/F17/Fedora-17-x86_64-netinst.iso -boot menu=on

NB: The "Oh no!" message was displayed after firstboot and rebooting. Removing the fprintd package from a console and rebooting allowed a normal login.

Created attachment 615633 [details]
/var/log/messages

/var/log/messages repeatedly shows:

Sep 21 13:28:26 f17-test-1 systemd-timedated[802]: /etc/localtime and /etc/timezone out of sync.

[joeblow@f17-test-1 ~]$ ls -lF /etc/timezone
ls: cannot access /etc/timezone: No such file or directory

Reproduced in F18 with a clean net install in a VM:

control-center-3.5.92-1.fc18.x86_64
firstboot-18.4-1.fc18.x86_64
systemd-188-3.fc18.x86_64

$ qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda f18-test-2.img -cdrom ~/xfr/fedora/F18/F18-Alpha/RC3/Fedora-18-Alpha-x86_64-netinst.iso -vga qxl -boot menu=on

This smells like firstboot writing in the wrong location, but Lennart will be able to tell you whether systemd should be reading that obsolete file (/etc/sysconfig/clock), firstboot should be writing another one.

(In reply to comment #4)
> This smells like firstboot writing in the wrong location, but Lennart will
> be able to tell you whether systemd should be reading that obsolete file
> (/etc/sysconfig/clock), firstboot should be writing another one.

Comment 1 reports that /etc/localtime is a file, not a symlink. Could that be part of the problem?

Cross-reference:
Bug 859217 - Please don't write out /etc/sysconfig/clock anymore

After setting the timezone to America/Los_Angeles in clean minimal F18 install from the F18-Alpha-Final DVD and rebooting to the login prompt:

Script started on Tue Sep 25 15:19:23 2012
[root@localhost xfr]# ls -lF /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 32 Sep 25 10:53 /etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern
[root@localhost xfr]# cat /etc/sysconfig/clock
ZONE="America/Los_Angeles"
[root@localhost xfr]# exit

Script done on Tue Sep 25 15:19:46 2012

Command-line:
$ qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda f18-test-2.img -cdrom ~/xfr/fedora/F18/F18-Alpha/RC3/Fedora-18-Alpha-x86_64-DVD.iso -vga qxl -boot menu=on

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > This smells like firstboot writing in the wrong location, but Lennart will
> > be able to tell you whether systemd should be reading that obsolete file
> > (/etc/sysconfig/clock), firstboot should be writing another one.
> 
> Comment 1 reports that /etc/localtime is a file, not a symlink. Could that
> be part of the problem?
> 
> Cross-reference:
> Bug 859217 - Please don't write out /etc/sysconfig/clock anymore

No, it has to do with systemd not reading /etc/sysconfig/clock, and firstboot/system-config-date not writing /etc/timezone.

Systemd ignores /etc/timezone entirely, it will not be written or read by
current systemd. It is all covered by /etc/localtime being a symlink and carrying this information.

Systemd does not read /etc/sysconfig/clock, it's a dead file now, and will
be deleted. Only /etc/localtime, which is expected to always be a symlink, matters, is read and maintained in current systemd.

Okay, does firstboot need to change here then? If /etc/localtime is a symlink I am guessing firstboot shouldn't write to it, what should firstboot do then? Should this be filed under firstboot?

If firstboot invokes system-config-date[1], then there is already this bug:
Bug 824033 - RFE: Make /etc/localtime a symlink 

[1] Bug 856090, Comment 4
Also: Diving into Firstboot
http://roottothehead.blogspot.com/2012/05/diving-into-firstboot.html

See also:
Bug 863676 - /etc/localtime link overwritten with incorrect timezone file during firstboot

I am pretty sure this is fixed with more recent F18, closing. Feel free to reopen if still exists.