NTP and/or clock issue

[Matthew Wyenandt]

Hi all,

I'm new to Qubes 4.0 and loving it. I'm having an odd situation where the time on my clock is showing -5 from my current timezone, rather than -5 from UTC. For instance, I'm physically located in America/Chicago timezone, which is -5 UTC. My Qubes OS clock is set for America/Chicago timezone, which also says -5 UTC; however, the clock is now showing -10 UTC. I've tried to figure out a way to manipulate the clock within dom0, but I'm not finding anyway to do so.

[Ivan Mitev]

Hey,

On 04/27/2018 06:12 PM, Matthew Wyenandt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to Qubes 4.0 and loving it. I'm having an odd situation where the time on my clock is showing -5 from my current timezone, rather than -5 from UTC. For instance, I'm physically located in America/Chicago timezone, which is -5 UTC. My Qubes OS clock is set for America/Chicago timezone, which also says -5 UTC; however, the clock is now showing -10 UTC. I've tried to figure out a way to manipulate the clock within dom0, but I'm not finding anyway to do so.

your hw clock is likely set to local time instead of UTC ; this usually
happens because you use(d) MS Windows.

`hwclock` allows you to tweak the hardware clock; you can manually set
the time and then run `hwclock --systohc --utc`, that should fix your
problem.

Note that `qvm-sync-clock` is run every hour in dom0 and should fix the
offset automatically: it first syncs dom0's time with the time in
"clockvm" (usually sys-net, see the output of `qubes-prefs clockvm`) and
it then runs `hwclock --systohc`.

If you still have issues, check that the timezone and time are OK in
sys-net (or whatever clockvm you have defined).

[Matthew Wyenandt]

Thanks for this info, Ivan. I followed these steps. Should my sys-net clock be set for UTC? When I run hwclock --show, it's still showing EDT as the current time. Do I need to set this manually? I would prefer that it get updated via ntp.

[Ivan Mitev]

The clockVM's clock is synchronized with NTP, you don't need to set
anything manually...

Clock synchronization works like that (if I'm not mistaken):

1- when a VM boots, the `/usr/lib/qubes/init/qubes-early-vm-config.sh`
script sets the VM's timezone (the script gets the timezone from dom0
with `qubesdb-read /qubes-timezone`).

2a- if the VM is defined as the clockVM (sys-net by default) then the
`systemd-timesyncd` service synchronizes the VM's clock with NTP.

2b- for dom0 and VMs != clockVM, the `qubes-sync-time.timer` systemd
timer runs the `qvm-sync-clock` every 6 hours to (re)sync the clock with
the time in clockVM (sys-net).


So make sure your timezone is OK in dom0: `ls -l /etc/localtime` should
point to the right timezone (eg. /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago).
Then the easiest way is to perform a *full* reboot and everything should
be fine.


If it isn't, you'll have to debug a bit further:

- make sure the timezone is OK in VMs too (again with `ls -l
/etc/localtime`). If it isn't, check what `qubesdb-read /qubes-timezone`
returns: it should be the same as dom0's timezone.

- in sys-net, run `systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd` ; `systemctl
status systemd-timesyncd` should output a line like

Status: "Synchronized to time server a.b.c.d:123 (0.fedora.pool.ntp.org)."

the clock in sys-net should show the right time (both `date` and `sudo
hwclock` should show the same time, with the EDT format).

- in dom0 and other VMs != clockVM, run `sudo qvm-sync-clock` ; the time
should then be OK.


Hope this helps !

[Matthew Wyenandt]

Okay, so something doesn't seem to be configured correctly. During further debugging, i was able to get the correct timezone using 'timedatectl set-timezone Americas/Chicago'. However, when running 'systemctl status systemd-timesyncd' I get the following output:

systemd-timesyncd.service - Network Time Synchronization
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-timesyncd.service; enabled; v
Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-timesyncd.service.d
└─30_qubes.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Condition: start condition failed at Fri 2018-04-27 10:04:54 CDT; 4s ago
└─ ConditionPathExists=/var/run/qubes-service/clocksync was not met
Docs: man:systemd-timesyncd.service(8)

It seems the clocksync file is missing from /var/run/qubes-service/ directory.

[Ivan Mitev]

If the output above is for your clockVM (sys-net) then something isn't
right. Otherwise that's the standard output for other VMs:
/var/run/qubes-service/clocksync is set only in the clockVM

I'm afraid I can't help more than that - maybe someone more experienced
will chime in, otherwise you should file an issue.

just in case, please paste the output of the following commands:

in dom0:
- `timedatectl`
- `ls -l /etc/localtime`

in sys-net:
- `systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd` followed by `systemctl status
systemd-timesyncd`
- `timedatectl`
- `qubesdb-read /qubes-timezone`

in another VM:
- `sudo qvm-sync-clock`
- `timedatectl`
- `qubesdb-read /qubes-timezone`

[Matthew Wyenandt]

Okay, so I read through the man pages of hwclock and timedatectl and finally got this resolved.

Ivan, you were correct that my hwclock in bios was set to localtime, throwing everything off. I set that to UTC. I then reviewed your first two posts and set dom0 to point to the correct timezone. I then set hwclock in clockvm to be utc. Then reboot. All is correct and times are displaying correctly. I think I was making everything too complex when I was reading your posts, I apologize.

steps I took to correct the problem:

Dom0:
'sudo rm /etc/localtime'
'sudo ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime'

clockvm (sys-net):
'sudo hwclock --systohc --utc'

reboot computer

now in both dom0 and clockvm 'ls -l /etc/localtime' points to the correct timezone and 'timedatectl' shows correct UTC and Local time as well as time zone.

Thanks again for your help, it took some time, but I learned a lot about the interaction between Dom0 and the other VM's.

[Ivan Mitev]

Hi Matthew,

Glad that you solved it !

> Ivan, you were correct that my hwclock in bios was set to localtime, throwing everything off. I set that to UTC. I then reviewed your first two posts and set dom0 to point to the correct timezone. I then set hwclock in clockvm to be utc. Then reboot. All is correct and times are displaying correctly. I think I was making everything too complex when I was reading your posts, I apologize.

No need to apologize - I'm happy to help.

> steps I took to correct the problem:
>
> Dom0:
> 'sudo rm /etc/localtime'
> 'sudo ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime'
>
> clockvm (sys-net):
> 'sudo hwclock --systohc --utc'
>
> reboot computer
>
> now in both dom0 and clockvm 'ls -l /etc/localtime' points to the correct timezone and 'timedatectl' shows correct UTC and Local time as well as time zone.
>
> Thanks again for your help, it took some time, but I learned a lot about the interaction between Dom0 and the other VM's.

Well, we wouldn't be learning if everything was always working as
planned ! To be frank I also learned a few things here too and this
whole thread will likely be useful to other people. Maybe I'll even
transform it into a prettier doc...

Cheers,
Ivan

[l31...@gmail.com]

Hello,
I have tried what Matthew did and you pointed to but I still have dom0 time an hour behing from what it supposed to be. Weird as both dom0 timedatectl and sys-net vm how same timezone
BIOS time is set to UTC
any pointers to a qubesos novice please?
Greg

On Friday, 27 April 2018 16:12:44 UTC+1, Matthew Wyenandt wrote:

Hi all,

I'm new to Qubes 4.0 and loving it.  I'm having an odd situation where the time on my clock is showing -5 from my current timezone, rather than -5 from UTC.  For instance, I'm physically located in America/Chicago timezone, which is -5 UTC.  My Qubes OS clock is set for America/Chicago timezone, which also says -5 UTC; however, the clock is now showing -10 UTC.  I've tried to figure out a way to manipulate the clock within dom0, but I'm not finding anyway to do sob.

[dhorf-hfre...@hashmail.org]

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 01:12:20AM -0700, l31...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have tried what Matthew did and you pointed to but I still have dom0 time
> an hour behing from what it supposed to be. Weird as both dom0 timedatectl
> and sys-net vm how same timezone

a) run "qubes-prefs clockvm" in dom0.
whats the returned vm name?

b) in that clockvm, run "timedatectl".
are local and universal time correct?
does the clock show as synchronized and ntp active?