How to change TimeZone?

Alexandr Didenko

Device Firmware Version: 0.2.0 b196
Web interface doesn't have 'Settings' page.

alt text

György Farkas

@Alexandr-Didenko Omega2(+) (ie OpenWrt) stores the time zone inside the '/etc/TZ' file and it operates in the UTC time zone by default.
So you should modify that file - more exactly the TZ variable - with ease on the Command Line.
The syntax of the TZ variable is documented here.
You can find the possible values of TZ in this ~~Time Zones~~ Time Zones table.

# Omega 2+ 0.2.0 b194

root@Omega-99A5:~# ls -l /etc/TZ
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             7 Jul 31 16:32 /etc/TZ -> /tmp/TZ

root@Omega-99A5:~# cat /etc/TZ
GMT0

root@Omega-99A5:~# date
Tue Sep 18 10:30:31 GMT 2018

To survive the power cycles and the reboot commands you should remove that symbolic link.

For example the correct contents of '/etc/TZ' when located in Budapest (Central Europe, Hungary) with Daylight Saving Time would be:
CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3

root@Omega-99A5:~# rm /etc/TZ

root@Omega-99A5:~# echo "CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3" > /etc/TZ

root@Omega-99A5:~# ls -l /etc/TZ
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            27 Sep 18 12:31 /etc/TZ

root@Omega-99A5:~# cat /etc/TZ
CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3

root@Omega-99A5:~# date
Tue Sep 18 12:32:39 CEST 2018

Unfortunately you should repeat these steps after every FACTORY RESET, firstboot and firmware up or downgrade.

Here you are another method.
This is maybe ~~simpler~~ better because you don't have to remove that symbolic link and - with the above TZ example - the result is ~~same~~ a little bit better.

uci set system.@system[0].timezone='CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3'
uci commit system
reboot

You should repeat these steps after every FACTORY RESET or firstboot only.

Good luck!

Lazar Demin

@Alexandr-Didenko Since you're on the latest firmware, you also have the latest version of the onion command line tool.
Connect to the command line and just run onion, in the output there will be a section describing how to use this tool to list out the possible timezones and then how to set the timezone for your device:

Configure Device Time:
	onion [OPTIONS] time list
		List all available timezones and associated timezone string

	onion [OPTIONS] time set <TIMEZONE> <TIMEZONE STRING>
		Change the system timezone

	onion [OPTIONS] time sync
		Update system time from the internet

There's also a sync command you can use to force the Omega to update its system time from online NTP servers.
Happy timezoning!

unique1984

In my case; Istanbul is GMT+3 and I couldn't find the +3 for Istanbul and i create it myself. Details are here https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/system (Time Zones
section)

uci set system.@system[0].timezone='EET-2EEST'
uci set system.@system[0].zonename='Istanbul'
uci commit
echo "EET-2EEST" > /etc/TZ

this works without reboot.

György Farkas

@Lazar-Demin Great!
Maybe some "announcement" in the Omega Firmware Changelog would be nice. For example:

György Farkas

@unique1984 You can find Istanbul in v0.2.0 192 and above:

onion time list | grep Istanbul
Europe/Istanbul EET-2EEST,M3.5.0/3,M10.5.0/4

and really simple to set TZ for you with this command:
onion time set Europe/Istanbul EET-2EEST,M3.5.0/3,M10.5.0/4

György Farkas

@unique1984 OK! You are right
I checked your TZ at Current Local Time in Istanbul, Turkey and Time Zone in Istanbul, Turkey.
It's UTC/GMT +3 and no Daylight Saving Time in 2017 — 2019.
(I didn't know this and misunderstood the TZ of Istanbul, Turkey vs. "+3 for Istanbul"

unique1984

@György-Farkas This is a special case and I hope someone who suffering for this, can solve it in this way if those are having trouble in Turkey. Thank you.

Alexandr Didenko

@Lazar-Demin

root@Omega-6B4C:~# onion time list | grep Moscow

show

Europe/Moscow   MSK-4

And this is error!
We have +3 zone

This command help me:

onion time set Europe/Moscow MSK-3

cas

@Alexandr-Didenko
Thanks for your report.
I have created an issue for it in the Onion repo and submitted a bug fix for Onion to integrate should they wish to do so.

György Farkas

@cas As you know @Lazar-Demin (I think he is the firmware maintainer) should update the TZ strings in the onion command line tool occasionally because some of them becomes outdated from time to time.

BTW There are "updated" OpenWrt TZ strings here and you can see the TZ string of Europe/Moscow has already corrected (but - for example - the TZ string of Europe/Istanbul has not).