Wrong timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti: DST offset is ignored

Bug #1031836 reported by Fabián Rodríguez
18
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
tzdata (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad
Hardy
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad
Lucid
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad
Natty
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad
Oneiric
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad
Precise
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad

Bug Description

[Impact]
All users affected by this time zone.

[Test Case]
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates?action=show#tzdata

[Regression potentional]
Minimal, no code change and addresses the latest upstream time differences.

I am installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and despite choosing Port-au-Prince from the global map in Ubiquity, the time zone / resulting time is wrong. It will show for example 8AM when in fact it is 9AM. I've compared this with local time (radio, local mobile phones) and with different Internet sources to confirm.

TimeAndDate.com reports the following correct information:

Standard time zone: UTC/GMT -5 hours
Daylight saving time: +1 hour
Current time zone offset: UTC/GMT -4 hours
Time zone abbreviation: EDT - Eastern Daylight Time
Daylight Saving Time DST started on dimanche 11 mars 2012, 02 h 00 local standard time
DST ends on dimanche 4 novembre 2012, 02 h 00 local daylight time

It's even more interesting that this change only happens *this year*:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone.html?n=709

I believe any Ubuntu system (and probably other Debian derivatives) running in this timezone are 1 hoour late as a result.

==
UPATE: This was fixed in tzdata 20120c1 and above, however such version won't be updated in Ubuntu for some time (low priority according to Canonical). To check your version: dpkg -l tzdata

A workaround is provided in the comments below.
==

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: tzdata 2012b-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic 3.2.21
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 1 11:08:57 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: tzdata
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab) wrote :

I`ve obtained a confirmation and escalation of this issue with Canonical support. Apparently DST was being ignored, the update for this hadn`t reached the regular updates yet. The fix was announced back in April:
http://osdir.com/ml/fedora-package-announce/2012-04/msg01576.html

Revision history for this message
Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab) wrote :

Citing Canonical support: "This missed 12.04 because feature freeze was on February 16th and the release which corrected the Haiti DST issue was release on April 3rd. The public bug will not see much work on it. I have escalated this issue to our engineers using a private bug."

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab) wrote :

As a workaround one can manually update the tzdata information:

1) Download the latest tzdata file:
mkdir tzupdate
cd tzupdate
wget http://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzdata2012e.tar.gz

2) extract the data:
tar -xvzf tzdata2009b.tar.gz
zic -d zoneinfo northamerica

3) Copy the relevant data to the approriate directory:cd zoneinfo
cd zoneinfo
sudo cp -r * /usr/share/zoneinfo/

4) Text the changes:
zdump -v America/Port-au-Prince| grep 2012

That should produce this output:
America/Port-au-Prince Sun Mar 11 06:59:59 2012 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2012 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
America/Port-au-Prince Sun Mar 11 07:00:00 2012 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2012 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
America/Port-au-Prince Sun Nov 4 05:59:59 2012 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2012 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
America/Port-au-Prince Sun Nov 4 06:00:00 2012 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:00:00 2012 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000

CHanges should be immediate, ie. reboot should not be required.

The above was adapated/sanitized from: http://chrisjean.com/2009/03/10/updating-daylight-saving-time-on-linux/

The above was tested in both Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Trisquel 5.5.

description: updated
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

This should be fixed in Quantal.

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Hardy):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Lucid):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Oneiric):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Precise):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Revision history for this message
Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel) wrote :

SRU verification for Precise:
I have reproduced the problem with tzdata 2012b-1 in precise and have verified that the version of tzdata 2012e-0ubuntu0.12.04 in -proposed fixes the issue.

I verified that the new data contains entries for DST on March 11th and Nov. 4th for the zone America/Port-Au-Prince

I noticed that the following zone changed too:
Africa/Casablanca
Asia/Damascus
Asia/Gaza
Asia/Hebron
Pacific/Fakaofo

Marking as verification-done

tags: added: verification-done-precise
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote : Update Released

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package tzdata - 2012e-0ubuntu0.12.04

---------------
tzdata (2012e-0ubuntu0.12.04) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 2012e:
    - Fixes timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LP: #1031836)
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:43:23 -0600

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Precise):
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote : Please test proposed package

Hello Fabián, or anyone else affected,

Accepted tzdata into lucid-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/2012e-0ubuntu0.10.04 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: New → Fix Committed
tags: added: verification-needed
Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Natty):
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

Hello Fabián, or anyone else affected,

Accepted tzdata into natty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/2012e-0ubuntu0.11.04 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

Hello Fabián, or anyone else affected,

Accepted tzdata into oneiric-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/2012e-0ubuntu0.11.10 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Hardy):
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

Hello Fabián, or anyone else affected,

Accepted tzdata into hardy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/2012e~repack-0ubuntu0.8.04 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Revision history for this message
Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab) wrote :

Thank you, I've tested this on Ubuntu 12.04LTS and the problem went away after regular updates.

Revision history for this message
Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65) wrote :

It is works correclty for Lucid Lynx.

tags: added: verification-done-lucid
Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

Verified on hardy, natty, and oneiric.

tags: added: verification-done
removed: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package tzdata - 2012e-0ubuntu0.11.10

---------------
tzdata (2012e-0ubuntu0.11.10) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 2012e:
    - Fixes timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LP: #1031836)
  * Update debian/copyright and debian/watch for new upstream.
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:43:23 -0600

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package tzdata - 2012e-0ubuntu0.11.04

---------------
tzdata (2012e-0ubuntu0.11.04) natty-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 2012e:
    - Fixes timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LP: #1031836)
  * Update debian/copyright and debian/watch for new upstream.
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:43:23 -0600

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package tzdata - 2012e-0ubuntu0.10.04

---------------
tzdata (2012e-0ubuntu0.10.04) lucid-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 2012e:
    - Fixes timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LP: #1031836)
  * Update debian/copyright and debian/watch for new upstream.
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:43:23 -0600

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package tzdata - 2012e~repack-0ubuntu0.8.04

---------------
tzdata (2012e~repack-0ubuntu0.8.04) hardy-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 2012e:
    - Fixes timezone data for Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LP: #1031836)
  * Update debian/copyright and debian/watch for new upstream.
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:43:23 -0600

Changed in tzdata (Ubuntu Hardy):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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