GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 606046
Weather does not appear if timezone identifiers don't match
Last modified: 2020-11-06 20:21:03 UTC
The weather icon and temperature text does not appear if the system timezone identifier (for example America/Montreal) is different than the clock location (for example America/Toronto), and the user has not set a "home" location. This bug is easy to trigger because libgweather accepts only a limited list of timezone identifiers. A workaround is to use the libgweather list to set the current location (from a location "Set..." button) or by guessing and changing the system timezone manually. This bug was first reported in Ubuntu [1]. It also seems closely related to bug 537912. However, using the system timezone to define a default location causes this bug. [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/494145
Philippe: hrm, sorry, I'm not sure I understand -- how can it work if there's no home location? Which location should be used for the weather?
If I understand correctly, when there are no home location set, the clock applet uses the system timezone to find the location for which to display the weather. Many users will have set their equivalent timezones at install and in the clock applet Locations preferences, but only some of them will not see the weather appear unless they confirm their home location by clicking the "Set..." button. Maybe this ambiguity could be solved by asking the user "Do you want to set your home location to X?" after they add a first location. The usability aspect of this bug depends heavily on the outcome of bug #537912.
Hrm, I guess we could change clock_location_is_current_timezone() to check harder if America/Toronto and America/Montreal are the same timezones. Right now, it does a strcmp(); but we could look if the files on disk are the same. Or we could add a checkbox in the "Add Location" dialog for this, that would be automatically checked in such a case...
Adding a location does not require special privileges, but changing the system time zone is restricted. Maybe the whole idea of linking locations with time zones needs to be redesigned.
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