Can't add 'other locations' for clock in 12.04 and 12.10

[John Pye]

Release: Ubuntu 12.04 beta 32-bit (via VirtualBox on Win7)
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.4.0-0ubuntu4

I attempted to add 'Sydney' and 'Canberra' to the 'other locations' list of the clock applet.

The locations aren't recognized (I'm not sure ANY locations that I type are recognized) so for the moment it looks as if the location database is missing, or some other bug is stopping the locations from being parsed correctly.

The new interface is very unhelpful because it's not clear if the lookup is failing to do anything, or whether the placename is unknown, or whether I have simply failed to click/type something. There should be a status bar giving some feedback, or something like that.

Could it be that this is related to missing Localisation data on my system? If so, the control center should notify me rather than failing silently.

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

John, I'm not seeing this behavior. When I type "Sydney" in as a new Location, I get a dropdown showing me posible matches. (See attached screenshot)

So the next step is to figure out whether the problem you're seeing is an issue with the location database like you guessed, or perhaps an interface issue, or something else.

Could you walk me through the exact click-by-click steps you're going through when you add a new location?

[John Pye (jdpipe)]

Charles,

1. click clock in unity-2d-panel
2. 'Time and date settings'
3. tab 'Clock'
4. button 'Choose Locations...'
5. green 'plus' button
6. type 'Sydney'
7. wait... nothing happens
8. press enter... nothing happens

Again, this GUI is quite unable to tell you if anything is going wrong, or not as expected. For example, if it's failing to load a location database or something, there should be some way of reporting that.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Same on Gnome Classic with gnome-panel 1:3.4.1-0ubuntu1 and indicator-datetime 0.3.94-0ubuntu2.

[Skilly (michael-scheepers)]

I have been experiencing this exact problem since upgrading to 12.04. A number of times I have attempted to add a few international locations that I routinely like to reference but abandoned the task after realising that it "doesn't work". Tonight if finally annoyed me enough to google the problem. I initially subscribed to this bug upon reading it, however after viewing Charles Kerr's attached screenshot, I tried again. The problem is that the dropdown list isn't populated automatically; it's blank, giving the impression that there are no values behind it, however if you start tyying the list starts populating after some delay.

I believe that the functionality is there, however the "bug" is in that it isn't intuitive that the data is available, leading one to draw an incorrect conclusion that the functionality is not available

[Johan Persson (johan-2q)]

I believe I have the same issue, but with a twist? (I am sorry if this is the wrong place for filing this - this is my first time...)

Can't add specific 'other locations' for clock in 12.10.

When trying to add Singapore, a list shows up that allows me to choose between "Singapore, South Africa" and "Singapore (Historical), United States", but the obvious Singapore, Signapore does not show up.

When typing Sidney, a list shows up that allows me to choose between a few different Sidneys, all in the USA. There would be space for the "real Sidney", but it doesn't show up.

System language: English
Keyboard layout: Swedish
Location set to: Stockholm
Ubuntu 12.10, fairly fresh install

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Also, as per my question here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+question/222376
it is not possible to add a timezone without a location, such as UTC, PTS etc. Terms such as these often append times for internet appointments such as Ubuntu on Air and G+ hangouts. It's as important for me to be able to add these as it is to add specific locations.

[Catalin Patulea (cpatulea)]

This started working for me after I connected to the Internet.

[John Pye (jdpipe)]

Sydney is spelt with a 'y'...?

[koplette (koplette)]

Is there a way to start the location selector from the command line? I thought this might be a way of finding out what's broken.

Or maybe there are some logs somewhere?