[PROBLEM] Wrong date/time

[Sehnsucht]

What do you get in response to timedatectl? On my systems, which synchronized successfully, I see something like the following

Code:

pi@m833p3lcd:~ $ timedatectl
              Local time: Tue 2023-06-13 16:29:40 EDT
          Universal time: Tue 2023-06-13 20:29:40 UTC
                RTC time: n/a
               Time zone: America/New_York (EDT, -0400)
System clock synchronized: yes
             NTP service: active
         RTC in local TZ: no

where the clock is reported to be synchronized and the NTP service is active.

I get:

Code:

             Local time: Tue 2023-06-06 18:44:10 BST
          Universal time: Tue 2023-06-06 17:44:10 UTC
                RTC time: n/a
               Time zone: Europe/London (BST, +0100)
System clock synchronized: no
             NTP service: active
         RTC in local TZ: no

Searching the InterWeb™, I found a similar problem reported by a Ubuntu user somewhere in the world. It was suggested by respondents that the system may be taking too long to find and synchronize with an authoritative time server. As distributed, the default timeout in moOde (e.g., RaspberryPiOS) is 5s. That should be plenty of time for most setups but apparently there are edge cases.

It was suggested to edit the /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf file to uncomment the #RootDistanceMaxSec=5 line and increase the timeout value from 5 to, say, 15.

I just tried a few, ending up with a value of 25.  I rebooted after each change and waited a while, but no change.   I tried stopping and starting systemd-timesyncd and it started showing Idle. before my 25 seconds were up.

I kept digging/experimenting and it turns out the fix is to edit /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf and set NTP to have the content of the FallbackNTP line:
NTP=0.debian.pool.ntp.org 1.debian.pool.ntp.org 2.debian.pool.ntp.org 3.debian.pool.ntp.org

Perhaps this should be the default for moOde installs if there's no downsides? Or perhaps keep the NTP line commented and simply uncomment the FallbackNTP line?

Edit: Nope, I tried this on my other moOde box.  I guess you have to set NTP not FallbackNTP because moOde thinks the one it's found (outside of this config file) is good enough to not need to fallback to anything, despite the "Idle." clue. 

Jun 06 18:23:04 electro systemd-timesyncd[1039]: Timed out waiting for reply from 192.168.4.1:123 (192.168.4.1).

Looks like your time-server is in your local network, like I use to do on my KODI box (I tell it the time server is my router...)
Nevertheless, it times out => no time-sync.

That IP address is my gateway - an EERO router.   I've had it a few months - it's pretty good.  It's possible the time on moOde has been wrong since then.   I see nothing in the EERO config (an android app) pertaining to ntp/time servers, nor do I see much on the subject when I google.  My other devices (linux desktop, chromebook, windows laptops, assorted phones/tablets) all show the correct time.