On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Peter Lewis <plewis@aur.archlinux.org> wrote:
Hmmm you're right. I'd always assumed that this was some user-specific KDE- specific timezone variable, but it seems that system settings panel is supposed to provide some functionality to change the system-wide timezone.
Yeah, this is supposed to set the system-wide timezone.
However, I also see "You are note allowed to save the configuration".
That's odd. It works fine for me. You should see a key icon next to the Apply button, and when you click it you will be asked for the root password.
I have no idea what exactly this configuration pane would actually set if it did have permissions.
It will directly set /etc/localtime, as KDE does not know anything about rc.conf (rightfully so). IMHO it is not ideal as it copies the timezone data rather than symlink it, so you will not automatically get any updates to your timezone (not that those are very frequent).
I'm afraid I also don't know how KDE system settings panels are supposed to request root permissions to allow settings like this.
This is done via policykit.
It's probably best to stick to the Arch standard way on this (see the wiki page on Time).
You should note that if you set the timezone in rc.conf, then we update your /etc/localtime to this value on boot. I.e. what you set in KDE is forgotten, so probably it is best to stick with the Arch way. If you prefer to use the KDE way, then that's possible, just make sure the TIMEZONE variable in rc.conf is not set and initscripts will leave your timezone alone. HTH, Tom