Changes to Daylight Saving Time

Hi--

I doubt any version of 10.3.9 is aware of the changes, certainly the non-server version isn't. I've updated the zoninfo database on a couple of my regular 10.3.9 machines. According to my notes, the Finder display is off, but it's so long ago that I noticed it, I don't remember what I meant by that. I didn't worry too much about it, since I figured I'd be running Tiger for sure on all my machines by then.

Here's a step by step procedure if you'd like to try updating it. First, open the Terminal window and copy the old zoneinfo folder to your desktop as a backup:

<pre class="command">sudo cp -r /usr/share/zoneinfo ~/Desktop/</pre>Now, make another directory on your desktop to hold a downloaded file:

<pre class="command">mkdir ~/Desktop/newzoneinfo</pre>Go to ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/ and look for a file called " tzdataYYYYr.tar.gz". Note that the YYYY is the year of the revision and "r" is a letter revision indicator. The one I just downloaded is called " tzdata2006n.tar.gz." By the time you download it, there could be another revision. Put this file in your newinfo directory on the Desktop. Now change to that directory and extract the files:

<pre class="command">cd ~/Desktop/newzoneinfo/
tar -zxvf tzdata2006n.tar.gz</pre>Now compile and install the new time zones:

<pre class="command">sudo zic -v africa antarctica asia australasia \
europe northamerica southamerica pacificnew \
etcetera factory backward systemv solar87 solar88 solar89</pre>Just copy and paste that into the Terminal window, backslashes and all if you want. Once you hit the "enter" key, you'll be asked to provide your administrator's password. It'll take a few seconds, and you should get back a command prompt without any errors printed out.

You can test it with this command:

<pre class="command">zdump -v /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Denver | grep 2007</pre>You should see the changes for 2007 reflected there. Another test you can use is a Perl one-liner:

<pre class="command">perl -e 'use POSIX qw(strftime); print strftime("%Y-%m-%d %r %Z\n", localtime(86400*13586));'</pre>Just change the last number (13586) by addition or subtraction to zero in on the time change. I haven't noticed any bad side effects from doing this, but I'd suggest trying it on a non-production machine first, if you can...

charlie

Charles,

I think the reason Finder is having trouble is that I believe the Mac zoneinfo files are somewhat different than the rest of the unix world.

I compared the output of zdump -v US/Pacific on my mac (ppc 10.4.8) and my linux box (suse 10.1) and there is an extra column of information on the linux output than on the mac output. I think that by using the files from the official distribution you are ending up with a format that is slightly perplexing to OS X.

My current theory (which I am testing) is that you can just copy the zoneinfo directory from a 10.4.5+ tiger install to 10.3.

So the zoneinfo format doesn't seem to matter. It seems that the digital menu clock has a mind of its own when it comes to this.

http://www.nondeterministic.net/archive/2004/10/0212_fall_back_fallback.php

Another url I found mentioned the ICU data files also needing an update, but that person had problems compiling them.

http://takeaway.arts.uwa.edu.au/timezone.html

Short answer, your method works if you have gcc on your mac, and then just use the analog clock for four weeks a year.

Or just copy zoneinfo files from 10.4.5+ and also use the analog clock for four weeks a year.

C'mon Apple, how about a DST 2007 patch for 10.3?

Hi--

If you look at the second URL, he said they were advised that there wouldn't be any patches for 10.3, and this is a user-to-user forum, so it's unlikely that anyone from Apple would read this. Your best bet to get through to Apple would be to use the Mac OS X Feedback page.

Short answer, your method works if you have gcc on
your mac, and then just use the analog clock for four weeks a year.

Hmmm. My method only relies on the zoneinfo compiler ( zic). For some reason, when I wrote that earrlier post, I thought that it was installed whether or not the Xcode development tools are installed. But, like I said, it's been almost a year now, and I really don't remember. And I've since gotten rid of my last 10.3 installation, so I don't have a way to check, unfortunately.

charlie

Hi Garth;

I admin over 100 10.3.9 installs and am scratching my head over this. I've seen messages from our Aussie and Indiana friends and you'd think more people would be screaming about this.

So far I've gone here:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.3.9/

To get the icu data file for 10.3.9 and hope to make something happen with it later today.

Have you made any progress on this?

Mike

MacBook C2D 2.33GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac mini, eMacs, iBooks, PowerBooks, G5 PowerMacs, G4 PowerMacs

Mike,

I've been researching this issue this week. My U.S.-based company has a few hundred Macs running 10.3.9, which will not be upgraded to Tiger by March 11.

There is a 'possibility' that Apple may release a DST updater for Panther. However, if that doesn't happen, I believe the only solution is going to be to manually change the time zone to one hour to the east on each Mac on 3/11, and then change them back to normal time zone on 4/1. See this article that Apple posted for their Australian customers last year, which is a similar scenario:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303517

To streamline the process, I will probably use Unix commands and Apple Remote Desktop to update several Macs at a time. Here are examples of Unix commands that can be used to change the time zone:

March 11, set Atlantic time zone (for Macs normally in Eastern time zone):
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Atlantic /etc/localtime

April 1, set U.S. Eastern time zone (New York) back to normal:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime

I have tried to update the DST info on a 10.3.9 system myself, in hopes of avoiding the manual switching of time zones, by doing the following:

1. Download 10.4.6 (PPC) combo updater.
2. Use Pacifist utility to extract the folder /usr/share/zoneinfo from the installer's package file.
3. Replace the zoneinfo folder on my 10.3.9 Mac with this folder.
4. Repair permissions, update prebinding, restart Mac.

Next I changed the date to March 11, 2007 (from system preferences). The Unix layer was then aware of the new daylight saving time parameters, but on the graphical interface layer, some applications were aware and some were not. For example, the Date and Time System Preference showed the correct DST time, but the clock on the Finder’s menu bar showed the old EST time. However, if the menu bar clock was set to analog, it then showed the DST time correctly, but the digital clock showed the old EST time. Similarly, Word and Excel functions showed the updated DST time, but Apple Mail showed the old EST time.

So it seems that there are many layers involved in updating a Mac for new DST rules. Just replacing the zoneinfo data is not enough. I'm hoping for a Panther patch from Apple.

And remember too, that if you use MS Office 2004, you will need to install the 11.3.3 update for compatability with the new DST rules:

http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2007/01/10/the-times-they-are-a-changin.as px

Hi Lorraine;

Thanks so much for your round of information, nicely done! We're tied to 10.3.9 due to our publishing system, hopefully we will get a certified OK to upgrade to Tiger, but it won't happen before 3-11 I'm afraid.

I'll make an inquiry with our Apple friends. Manually switching time zones, busting apart packages, hunting for icudt files is not ideal. Nor is getting support calls because the menubar clock is set wrong.

Oh and thanks for the reminder on MS Office 2004 11.3.3. I just finished Q/A testing on it and it looks OK to deploy.

Mike

Hi Lorraine;

There's a script and a .dmg to workaround the problem at:

http://www.afp548.com/

I just downloaded it to check it out.

Mike

Mike,

I just saw your message -- thank you!

Here is an article on this unoffical DST fix for Panther from Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/1/28/6785

And in case it gets moved off the home page at AFP548, here is the article that contains the download links:

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20070128143720897

I downloaded the .dmg file and tested installing the package on a 10.3.9 system and then setting the date ahead. The package contains an updated /usr/share/zoneinfo directory and an updated /usr/share/icu directory.

It seems to work fine. In fact, when I extracted the ICU folder from the package using Pacifist and dropped that onto the system where I had brought over the zoneinfo folder from a 10.4.6 combo updater package, the time issues with the digital Finder menu bar clock and the Mail application went away.

I don't know if this is a complete solution, as the Java layer would probably need its own DST update, and there might be some other items that would also need updating, but the installer in this .dmg file seems to take care of updating most (if not all) of the OS for the new DST rules.

I may not receive permission to roll out a non-official update from a third party, but I will certainly ask if we don't receive a patch from Apple by mid-February.

Hi Lorraine;

I may not receive permission to roll out a non-official update
from a third party, but I will certainly ask if we don't receive a
patch from Apple by mid-February.

A little bird told me to hold off deploying Ian's procedure.

I finished cloning my base OS install and will proceed with testing just in case, but holding off mass deployment.

Mike

Mike,

Ian Ward Comfort has released another patch for Panther systems, to update the Java layer. It's available for download on the same page:

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20070128143720897

No 'official' patch from Apple yet.


PowerBook G4 (Double-Layer SD) 15 inch Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1GB RAM

Hi, Lorraine and others. Ian Ward Comfort's patch sets my Mac's clock back an hour (to 1AM) at 2 AM on March 11, rather than forward an hour to 3 AM. Isn't that backwards, or am I missing something?

eww, my test was good. After installing both patches, I set the date to 3/11/2007 and set the time to 1:57am. At 2am the time moved ahead to 3am. [I am in eastern time zone.]

Did you repair permissions before installing the two patches? If not, then they may not have installed properly. Try repairing permissions and then reinstalling them, and test again. You can also post a comment on the download page at the AFP site; Ian has been replying to some of the questions himself.

Hi Lorraine;
Good to hear your testing went well. My testing also reflects the good work Ian put into making this package. I feel comfortable deploying it, but I'll wait until the last minute 🙂

One of our vendors switched to high gear when I posed the question to them--DST caught them unawares--for a minute there I thought I'd get a free ride to Tiger!

Thanks again for your info sharing.

Mike