Ubuntu
gnome-panel package

clock applet can't set timezone for new location

Bug #325163 reported by Rocko on 2009-02-04

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	gnome-panel (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Low	Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

This is the same as https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/271144, but that bug has been converted into a question, and I feel that the the clock applet's error handling behaviour should be improved so anyone can easily identify and correct the problem, so I think it's a bug.

To reproduce it:

1. Configure multiple locations in the clock applet with different timezones.
2. Click on the clock applet.
3. Move the pointer to a location with a timezone that is different from your currently set timezone.
4. Click on the set button that appears.

The error message I get is the rather incomprehensible message "Failed to set the system timezone: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1".

After reading bug #271144, I checked auth.log:

dbus-daemon: Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.42" (uid=1000 pid=4857 comm="gnome-panel ") interface="org.gnome.ClockApplet.Mechanism" member="SetTimezone" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination="org.gnome.ClockApplet.Mechanism" (uid=0 pid=1939 comm="/usr/lib/gnome-panel/gnome-clock-applet-mechanism "))

I don't know what has removed permissions for the clock (I haven't adjusted any permissions since installing Jaunty) to change the timezone.

The behaviour I would hope for is:

a) The clock applet informs you that it does not have permission to change the timezone.

b) It opens the authorizations dialog to the correct location so you can authorize the change.

c) If you authorize the change, it changes the timezone as requested.

Even if the clock applet were not to do steps b) and c), it should at the very least tell you how to fix the problem.

Version info:

ubuntu 9.04
gnome-panel 1:2.25.5.1-0ubuntu1