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I have an iPod touch (2nd gen) and constant troubles with the clock setting itself one hour ahead of the actual time when I connect it to the computer.

long story short, When I SSH into the device:

  • date "+%Z" returns ARST which is correct (I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • date "+%z" the result is -0200, which is wrong and should be -0300

My question is: How do I correct the offset of my timezone to the real value?

I have found mentions of zic, zdump and references to a "IANA Time Zone Database".
I've tried to find allready compiled files in order to replace the whole "zoneinfo" folder, but the downloads I could find seem to use a different folder structure than the one on the iPod.

edit: I am looking for a way to edit or update the timezone information, so that my timezone "ARST" is configured correctly. I have found several references to a compiler named zic, but need help in order to work out a solution.
Both zic and zdump are present on the device, which leads me to believe it can be done via SSH and UNIX-commands.

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1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

OK, I have stumbled upon the solution.
Here's the link where I got the info from: http://brickybox.com/2009/10/18/os-x-fix-argentina-dst-october-2009

The tzdata source has changed its url. It is now to be found at: ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/ or http://www.iana.org/time-zones for more information.

  1. I downloaded the updated tzdata-file: in this case tzdata2012j.tar.gz and extracted it to a temporary folder.

  2. Then I SSHed into the iPod and copied the extracted files to the iPod. I chose User/Downloads and created a new (temporary) folder tzfix into which I copied everything.

  3. after that came the zic compile: zic southamerica, which took a few short seconds

  4. then

    cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Buenos_Aires

    I don't understand what this realy does. Copy, and overwrite, the file with itself?

  5. testing date "+%z" and date "+%Z" both return correct values, now: -0300 and ART

Finally! I can set the clock to the correct time without twitter refusing to login and Google authenticator throwing wrong auth codes.

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Step 4 copies the America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires file into the America/ directory. (Notice that it's not America/Argentina/.) – Michael Kjörling Jan 28 at 8:41
Ah! Thanks @MichaelKjörling That clears it up nicely. It completely escaped my attention. – leugim Jan 28 at 16:02
Aren't there updated packages available for iOS? That is preferrable to hacking in a file from sources. – vonbrand Jan 28 at 16:09
@vonbrand: That was my first approach, searching for a solution. I couldn't find any updated packages. The only options seems to be "update to the newest iOS". My iPod won't perform well with iOS4, so I'm stuck with 3.1.3. I did not find a way to update only certain packages. Something I am learning to appreciate from fooling around with Ubuntu. – leugim Jan 28 at 19:34
Also, and I did not include it in the answer because I suspect it to be offtopic, there is another separate database for the time which needs to be updated: the ICU database. It uses the same tzdata and needs to be compiled into /usr/share/icu/icudt40l.dat. This is necessary so that the clock and calendar apps show the correct time. – leugim Jan 28 at 19:34

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