I just came across this thread having experienced the same problem, after noticing my system time zone was set incorrectly. Since it looks like the problem wasn't addressed, let me add my experience. I'm running an up-to-date installation of Intrepid/8.10 in a 32-bit VirtualBox virtual machine, with a 20 GB virtual hard disk and 1 GB ram allocated. The host machine is running an up-to-date 64-bit Intrepid install. In the guest:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ uname -a Linux playground 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 21:57:00 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux Adjusting the time through the clock applet produces the same error other users have experienced, a big red minus sign with "Failed to set the system time" and "/sbin/hwclock returned 256" in a single dialog. After about twenty tries I've noticed that the results are nondeterministic. There are three outcomes: outright failure with the error dialog box, a silent fail without setting the clock, and a bizarre third scenario where the clock is set for about two seconds and then automatically resets to the previous time; I'm guessing the software clock update succeeds here and the hardware update fails, the applet mistakenly kills the dialog, and then shortly after a daemon somewhere overwrites the software clock with the incorrect hardware value. I updated /etc/localtime with a symbolic link to my time zone, which fixed my actual problem. As for the applet, some sleuthing suggests the real problem is deeper: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo date -s '12/09/2008 19:09:40' Tue Dec 9 19:09:40 CST 2008 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo /sbin/hwclock --systohc --debug hwclock from util-linux-ng 2.14 hwclock: Open of /dev/rtc failed, errno=2: No such file or directory. No usable clock interface found. Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method. And indeed /dev/rtc is missing, as well as any /dev/rtc* devices. I have posted this here but it seems possible that VirtualBox could be at fault. However, the existence of the following post about a similar problem with VMWare/Intrepid leads me to believe it is the result of incompatible changes in the Linux kernel: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+source/udev/+bug/252924 and that /dev/rtc doesn't exist because the kernel can no longer find the appropriate legacy CMOS RTC driver for the virtualized clock. Anyone care to address? If someone can convince me VirtualBox needs to update something on their side, I'll repost over there. -- On time set, "/sbin/hwclock returned 256" https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/207902 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
