Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Repairing time zone setting problems System
I've noticed that there are times when you cannot select your "Time Zone" in the System Preferences, reverting to something other than what you clicked. Well, I discovered the problem and here's the solution...

The problem is with either Norton Utilities (this seems to be a common theme) or Mac OS X itself corrupting some files, most notably the files in the unix folder "zoneinfo". This folder holds the timezone definitions and when the files inside become corrupted, you cannot select your time zone. The solution is to grab a copy of the zoneinfo folder from another computer and drop that over top of your exsisting folder.

Read the rest of the article for the how-to...

[robg adds: I've never had a problem with the time zone settings, but then again, I've never installed Norton either, so perhaps there is a correlation. Nonetheless, if you are having this problem, perhaps this fix will help...]

First off, quit everything but the Terminal. Download this zoneinfo archive [228K] to your Desktop, unstuff it, and do the following in the Terminal:
 % cd /usr/share
 % sudo rm -R zoneinfo
 % sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/zoneinfo zoneinfo
You'll find immediantly that you can now select your proper time zone. Another, graphical, way to do it (if you're afraid of rm) is this way:

Close any open windows. In the Finder, go to the menu "Go" and select "Computer". Then, go under the "View" menu and select "Columns". Click on your harddrive you use to boot the OS. Now, go under the "Go" menu and select "Go To Folder". Underneath the computer name in the only window open it should say "Go to the folder:" followed by a field. If anything is in that field, remove it and put "usr" and click "Go".

Now select "share". Go under File -> Get Info and click the triangle beside "Ownership & Permissions:". Click the lock if it is "locked", if it is unlocked skip this step. Type in your password and click ok. Then select "system" beside the field "Owner" and choose the one with "username (Me)". Make sure your access is Read & Write.

Now, scroll to the bottom of column which has "aclocal" at the top (in the share folder). zoneinfo should be 2nd from the bottom. Drag it to the trash. Now drag the one you downloaded into the "share" folder. Get Info on the "share" folder and change "username (Me)" back to system. Click the lock. Run diskutility and repair permissions.

And all should be good to go. You can also copy this file from another Mac by typing the following into Terminal:
 % cp -R /usr/share/zoneinfo ~/desktop
And a zoneinfo file should appear on your dektop.

Enjoy!
    •    
  • Currently 2.67 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (3 votes cast)
 
[6,436 views]  

Repairing time zone setting problems | 8 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Repairing time zone setting problems' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: ducasi on Feb 27, '03 12:44:22PM

Hi,

There's a cache file which the system generates from the zoneinfo files. I've found by removing this file missing zones magically reappeared.

Now if only I could remember where the file is....

If I figure it out, I'll post it here.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: ducasi on Feb 27, '03 12:49:39PM

Found it!

/System/Library/CoreServices/cacheTimeZones

Removing this file and rebooting should be the first step if you've got a time zone problem.

To remove this file from the terminal you'd do:

% sudo rm /System/Library/CoreServices/cacheTimeZones
(enter your password when prompted)

There may be permission problems if you try to remove it from the Finder.

Cheers!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: Metzen on Feb 27, '03 01:34:47PM

Your above solution only works when the zoneinfo files have not been corrupted. Proof of concept:

Search for "localtime" on your computer with visibility "all". Once you find it, open the containing folder, and get info on the file. Note the file localtime points to. And go to that file (located in /usr/share/zoneinfo/etc. etc. etc.) and open it in TextEdit. To get an idea of what Norton does, "Select all" press delete, and then save the file. Now, go to your time zone in Date and Time system preference and select a timezone that is not yours. Now select your original time zone. Your Time zone will now say the *previous* time zone you selected, even though the "selected" area is correct and your city is correct.

Now delete the timezone cache file and see if that fixes it.

I'll tell you right now, it does not.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: Metzen on Feb 27, '03 07:27:13PM

When I said "for the above solution" I meant the one posted in the comment.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: ducasi on Feb 28, '03 03:25:25AM

Sure, if your zoneinfo files are messed up, you need to restore them.

But I said "Removing [the cache] file and rebooting should be the first step if you've got a time zone problem."

Chances are that the cache file is more likely to be messed up, but if removing it doesn't fix the problem, your solution should be the second step.

After all, which is easier to do?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: Metzen on Feb 28, '03 02:43:27PM

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I'm just stating that your solution serves a different purpose then the symptoms stated in the article.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: cluthi on Sep 07, '03 05:38:57PM

Hi,
The link is dead and I suspect my timezone files are corrupted. :-(
Can someome points to to valid timezone files please ?

Thanks



[ Reply to This | # ]
Repairing time zone setting problems
Authored by: dmcole on Nov 13, '05 04:52:22PM

Just to suggest this still works, I had a hard disk crash and when I restored from Carbon Copy Cloner, the time zone preferences wouldn't stick.

Once I found out about the zoneinfo directory, I went to look and found it wasn't there. I followed the command-line instructions, restored the directory and the time zone preference began to work again.

I'm on OS X 10.3.9 on the formerly time zoneless machine.

Thanks.

dmc



[ Reply to This | # ]