Re: Removing "CMOS clock set to UTC" question

On Wed, 12 Jun 2024 12:22:32 -0400
Ed Maste <emaste@freebsd.org> wrote:

> Our installer asks (via tzsetup):
> 
> > Is this machine's CMOS clock set to UTC?  If it is set to local time,
> > or you don't know, please choose NO here!
> 
> I've heard many reports of new users being confused by this question
> when installing FreeBSD for the first time. I don't think it provides
> much value; it is a minor convenience for dual-booting with Windows
> but imposes a cost on everyone installing FreeBSD. It is trivial to
> configure the system to use local time in the system's real-time clock
> by creating /etc/wall_cmos_clock. Other operating systems do not ask,
> they just default to local time (Windows) or UTC (everyone else).
> 
> I've proposed removing the question from bsdinstall in
> https://reviews.freebsd.org/D45569.

tzsetup(8) manpage is a bit confusing.
Does `tzsetup -s` create /etc/wall_cmos_clock when it's not exist and
selected timezone is NOT UTC?

Unfortunately, most of computers used by end-users (personal or
corporate) would running Windows. Does emulated CMOS clocks on VMware,
virtualBox and/or something else on Windows shows always UTC, or wall
CMOS clock same as host Windows?

If the behavior doesn't match the situation, newbies who want to sniff
FreeBSD over emulated environment on Windows should surely panic.
Causing "Hey, FreeBSD's clock is crazy! It's definately UNUSABLE,
even more, UNTRIABLE!".

IIRC, ancient OS/2, BeOS and 超漢字（a commercial implementation of
BTRON) blindly treated CMOS clock as wall CMOS clock.

-- 
Tomoaki AOKI    <junchoon@dec.sakura.ne.jp>