Bug 443354

Summary:	Option to automatically set time zone based on user's location
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Riccardo Robecchi <sephiroth_pk>
Component:	kcm_clock	Assignee:	Paul Campbell <paul>
Status:	RESOLVED REMIND
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	chermnykh2001, cobalt2727, isma.af, kde, kde, maurizio.tomasi, nate, noahadvs, paulo.fidalgo.pt, plasma-bugs-null, ragi
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.22.5
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328822
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Riccardo Robecchi 2021-10-05 15:37:18 UTC

SUMMARY
Currently, users who change time zone need to manually go into settings, look for the relevant time zone and set it; if/when they go back to the previous one, they have to repeat the process. It would be nice if the system actually set the time zone automatically when one first connects to the Internet, much like current smartphones do. Ideally this would result in a setting, so that one can actively choose not to have this behaviour on their system.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Change time zone

OBSERVED RESULT
The time zone setting is not updated.

EXPECTED RESULT
The time zone setting is updated automatically.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux: KDE neon
KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.3

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 David Edmundson 2021-10-05 16:11:36 UTC

This is out of scope.

Comment 2 Riccardo Robecchi 2021-10-05 16:14:46 UTC

If this is out of scope for the product I have opened the issue against, what product should I open it against? If this is not about where to open the issue, why a convenient feature that we can find on other DEs (e.g. GNOME) as well as other OSs (Windows, macOS) should be out of scope?

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-10-08 18:51:35 UTC

I don't see how this is out of scope. It seems like a perfectly reasonable request to me. Night color already has a location-based option for itself. If it's fine for Night Color, it should be fine for the KCM itself.

Speaking personally, I would appreciate and use such an option. Having to manually set timezones is a pain in the butt when I travel.

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2021-10-08 18:53:44 UTC

This might require first implementing Bug 328822, since right now changing timezones requires root access, and having a background daemon running as root just for changing the timezone every once in a while seems potentially undesirable.

Comment 5 Noah Davis 2021-10-08 18:59:56 UTC

We should also make sure it doesn't misbehave when the user is using a VPN.

Comment 6 Ismael Asensio 2021-10-08 19:24:41 UTC

Apart from the per-user setting, I think automatically setting the system timezone (if opted-in) can be also desirable. 

I'm thinking of the daemon running as user, but accessing root privileges via polkit if required.

Comment 7 ragi 2024-03-12 19:58:55 UTC

There are so many threads on Reddit asking for this. Hopefully

Comment 8 Maurizio Tomasi 2024-07-29 04:14:10 UTC

Until this gets addressed, one can set up a systemd service that calls tzupdate (https://github.com/cdown/tzupdate)

Comment 9 duha.bugs 2024-10-09 15:30:41 UTC

*** Bug 494234 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10 Kai Uwe Broulik 2025-01-10 18:35:28 UTC

This has been implemented for Plasma 6.3 [1]

It's experimental and there's no UI to enable it yet since we want to gauge server load first (you can't put that behind a CDN after all) before we make it more prominent in the UI maybe in 6.4.

[1] https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/commit/a9dcdd5e56a8a503a3b204d607fd6ed2e1d29c11

Comment 11 Riccardo Robecchi 2025-01-11 10:20:28 UTC

Thanks a lot, Kai, for your work! I look forward to trying this!