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30-11-2006, 02:34 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Minjup, WA 6123
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Daylight Saving WA
There have been a few posts about this, but I think I should put this in a new thread.
Below is a message from Derek Yeoh-Ellerton (via Garner Annett at Apple WA) on a workaround for resetting Macs on Sunday when daylight saving comes in in WA.
Sorry it's so long -- but it does appear to work.
Hope it's useful.
mct
Quote:
Apple does not have a system software update that will be ready for the December 1 DST start date in Perth. The official Apple work around is to manually change the system time.
As a courtesy I am forwarding an unofficial workaround developed by Derek Yeoh-Ellerton at the Heritage Council (thank you to Derek for his efforts).
This sets the system time zone to Japan (one hour ahead of Perth) using a script which can be deployed remotely. Changing the time zone will have implications for some applications, in particular calendaring applications. Derek has commented on iCal and Entourage.
Please note that Apple does not offer any support for this approach and it is being forwarded for general information only. All testing for application compatibility in your environment is your responsibility.
We are expecting official time zone support to be included in a future system software update.
For further information or to lodge any concerns please call AppleCare on 133 622 (they will have no information on this unofficial workaround).
Regards,
Garner
---
Begin forwarded message:
From: Derek Y-E <snip>
Date: 28 November 2006 11:50:14 AM
To: MacGeeks List <macgeeks@list.peter.com.au>
Cc: @asia.apple.com, Anthony Butler <@asia.apple.com>
Subject: Re: Daylight savings in Perth? -> Terminal commands to change the time -> Change the time zone to Osaka, Japan
Hi Folks.
I've been looking into the Daylight Savings issue a bit further, for us Mac users. Unfortunately, this Apple page ( http://www.apple.com/au/hotnews/ ) isn't much help at this point in time if you have more than a few workstations...
So, I've worked out a quick and easy work-around for those staff wanting to change the time quickly on multiple OS X workstations and servers... I would caution that it's not endorsed by Apple, and I take no responsibility for it's use. But it's worked for me.
Now, you can do this on one workstation. Or you can SSH into a workstation and do it there. In terminal write:
sudo rm /etc/localtime
sudo ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Japan /etc/localtime
This deletes the symbolic link of your "localtime" file (that normally points to "Australia/Perth"). It then creates a new symbolic link called localtime, pointing at Japan, which are one hour ahead of Perth.
You will be prompted for a senior password when doing this via the command line. (No "sudo" required if using remote desktop).
If you want to check the file afterwards, type:
ls -la /etc/localtime
You should get a result similar to:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 25 Nov 28 10:55 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Japan
For those (such as myself), seeking to deploy this to multiple workstations, including servers, you can use this command via Remote Desktop. To do this, set up a "Unix Command" to several workstations or servers, running as the User "Root":
rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Japan /etc/localtime
The next time the computer is rebooted, or if the Date and Time Preference Pane is opened, the time on the desired workstation / server, will automatically adjust to the new time-zone.E.g. 1 hour ahead of Perth.
If you want, you can automatically open this pane via Remote Desktop too... (It's up to you to close it again afterwards, or you can write a command to 'close/kill' the process if you really want to)...
e.g. send this command (to save rebooting):
open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane/
From my basic testing, these three commands, will set your computers to the new time-zone, and make your Mac's clock take note of the new zone. (There are probably other ways to make your clock refresh straight away, but this works for me :-)
Later on, if you want to send your computers back to the Perth time-zone (e.g. once Apple has released a software update for Perth Western Australia daylight savings), you can use these commands:
rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Perth /etc/localtime
And to test:
ls -la /etc/localtime
Which should give you something like:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 35 Nov 28 12:42 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Perth
Happy time-zone changing, and let me know how this goes for you...
Cheers,
Derek
--
Derek Yeoh-Ellerton
IT Manager
Heritage Council of Western Australia
<snip>
--
Hi Folks.
Forgot to mention the work-around for iCal appointments doing a 1-hr time-shift...
To avoid the issues with iCal, open up iCal, open up your iCal Preferences, and select the "Advanced" tab, and enable time-zone support.
After the time-zone change on December 3, when you or your users next open iCal, you will be asked "Your computer's time zone changed" ... "Do you want to change the time zone in iCal's main calendar view to 'Japan'?"
When this message comes up, select "Cancel" (e.g. NO). And your iCal appointments will NOT be time-shifted. Easy!
Then when the new time-zone update is released by Apple, you just need to make the appropriate changes back to the Perth time-zone, with Daylight savings enabled.
(You may need to answer a question in iCal again, when we come back to the "Perth" zone... or you may not... You'll need to test this once the update is released).
Cheers,
Derek
--
From: Derek Yeoh-Ellerton <snip>
Date: 29 November 2006 10:27:46 AM
To: Garner Annett <@asia.apple.com>
Subject: Re: Mac's and WA Daylight Savings Time
Hi Garner.
Yes, you may pass it on if you wish (the work-around that I'll be using)... Feel free to name the source in the process :-)
With Entourage, the Calendar issue is there again...
For example, if I add a new appointment for 12noon, with the time-zone as Osaka Japan...
You'll notice a warning about the calendar has been adjusted for the time zone (see yellow text bar above).
Yet, in the calendar view, the appointment will be for 1pm...
If you go the the Entourage Menu -> General preferences -> Calendar, you can set your time-zone...
Then, when you add new appointments, they will fall at the time that you set them (e.g. a 12noon appointment falls at 12noon)...
Note how the appointment I set at 12pm BEFORE changing the Entourage calendar time-zone, remains displayed as "1pm".
So, pretty much the same work-around as I posted for the iCal issue, with using a different time-zone. Just more fiddlie (you have to name the time-zone).
Hope that helps :-)
Cheers,
Derek
__________________________________________________ ___________________________________
Garner Annett
Account Executive
Higher Education, Corporate & Government
P + I M I E @asia.apple.com <mailto:@asia.apple.com> I iChat @mac.com <mailto:@mac.com>
Learn about Apple's commitment to education at www.apple.com.au/education <http://www.apple.com.au/education/>
Apple Computer Australia Pty Ltd
Level 4, 16 St. Georges Tce, Perth, WA, 6000
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
______________________
This correspondence is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential or legally privileged information or both. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this correspondence in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender. You must not disclose, copy or rely on any part of this correspondence if you are not the intended recipient.
Any opinions expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the opinions of Apple Computer Australia Pty Ltd.
Neither the sender nor Apple Computer Australia warrants that any communication via the Internet is free of errors, viruses, interception or interference. Information is distributed without warranties of any kind.
______________________
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__________________
MacBook 13in, 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, OS10.4.11
PowerBook G4, 12in, 1.5GHz, 1.25GB RAM, OS10.4.11
Bondi Blue iMac, 96MB RAM, OS9.2.2
Last edited by Disko; 28-03-2007 at 06:25 PM.
Reason: Removed personal contact details upon request
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30-11-2006, 03:59 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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From my testing, if you are not needing to do this remotely,
then switching the symbolic link is exactly (and all) that that is performed by
just clicking on the map of Japan in the Time/Date Preferences. 
__________________
24" 2.4GHz iMac, 2GHz MBP, (1.66GHz, 250GB mini + Dell 2405FPW + Belkin F1PI241EGau), 16GB 1stG 'Touch
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30-11-2006, 06:21 PM
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Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.
Group: Regulars
Location: Perth
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I'm going for the Time/Date prefs selecting Japan option.
__________________
.
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.
- Cicero (106BC-43BC)
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30-11-2006, 07:08 PM
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Ronin
Group: Regulars
Location: Sapporo
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me too...
oh.. but I am in Japan..
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02-12-2006, 11:42 PM
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Member
Group: Regulars
Location: Perth
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The suggestion above is quite bad advice!
A much, much more elegant solution is to edit the timezone file for Perth in /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Perth. The correct version is attached (with a .txt extension, because this message board wouldn't let me upload it without an extension - please remove the .txt before use). For safety rename the old one to something like Perth.bak, and also do the same for "West" in the same directory or symlink the two (ln -s Perth West).
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03-12-2006, 12:53 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Caulfield North, Vic.
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Just remember peeps, it is only for the next 3 years that we have it, after that, it is likely that the stone age mentatlity pollies we have over here will revert to 'natural time'.
__________________
Ice Ice . . . . Baby!
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03-12-2006, 07:19 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by terminus
A much, much more elegant solution is to edit the timezone file for Perth in /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Perth.
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Thanks for this Terminus. I've tried both your modified zonefile and another that is circulating in another thread. Both work in that the time changes, and that
zdump -v Australia/West | grep 200
correctly reports all changes. However, it apears to have exposed an interesting bug in the Time/Date Preferences panel. While the circular/analogue clock correctly reports the changes, the digitial clock that may be changed with +/- controls remains incorrect by 1 hour. 
__________________
24" 2.4GHz iMac, 2GHz MBP, (1.66GHz, 250GB mini + Dell 2405FPW + Belkin F1PI241EGau), 16GB 1stG 'Touch
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03-12-2006, 07:38 AM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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Will have to check this out, although it seems good.
__________________
MacBook 2.4Ghz C2D Superdrive w/ 4Gb ram, 160Gb HDD (White)
iMac 20" 2.16Ghz C2D w/ 3Gb ram, 256Mb video ram (White)
iPhone 3G 8Gb
1Tb Time Capsule
Last edited by purana; 03-12-2006 at 07:50 AM.
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03-12-2006, 07:52 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by purana
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Yes, thanks, I've tried that one too. Both work in changing the time, but both expose the bug in the Preferences panel.
I suspect (hypothesizing) that problems may surface because WA does not have an official identifier, like WDT, for its daylight time, and people are just modifying the +UMT values and sticking with WST.
__________________
24" 2.4GHz iMac, 2GHz MBP, (1.66GHz, 250GB mini + Dell 2405FPW + Belkin F1PI241EGau), 16GB 1stG 'Touch
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03-12-2006, 08:29 AM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism238
Yes, thanks, I've tried that one too. Both work in changing the time, but both expose the bug in the Preferences panel.
I suspect (hypothesizing) that problems may surface because WA does not have an official identifier, like WDT, for its daylight time, and people are just modifying the +UMT values and sticking with WST.
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Yeah I noticed, and since updated the thing to indicate this. Bit of a bummer, I've reverted back the changes.
Apple should have brought out a patch with the updated files and fixed the problem.
__________________
MacBook 2.4Ghz C2D Superdrive w/ 4Gb ram, 160Gb HDD (White)
iMac 20" 2.16Ghz C2D w/ 3Gb ram, 256Mb video ram (White)
iPhone 3G 8Gb
1Tb Time Capsule
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03-12-2006, 03:32 PM
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Member
Group: Regulars
Location: Perth
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism238
However, it apears to have exposed an interesting bug in the Time/Date Preferences panel. While the circular/analogue clock correctly reports the changes, the digitial clock that may be changed with +/- controls remains incorrect by 1 hour. |
You are right... except that if your clock is displayed in a window rather than the menu bar (a little used option under Date & Time in System Preferences), then even the digital clock is correct. Go figure. Personally, I'm now using the analogue clock. |
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