[WSL2] [bug] The Systemd timezone is reset to the Windows timezone at boot time. Some users may have reasons to use UTC.
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
My Windows timezone is set to CET.
We're running some software in an Ubuntu 20.04 WSL2 machine that needs the timezone to be set to UTC.
I tried to set the timezone using sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata > "None of the above" > "UTC".
Problem: This works, but the timezone is reverted to the Windows timezone after WSL2 reboot.
Describe the solution you'd like
Possibility to persistently & easily configure a timezone in WSL2 that differs from the Windows timezone.
Could e.g. be added to /etc/wsl.conf.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Didn't find any related option here:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/automatically-configuring-wsl/
Currently using this workaround (to avoid the console-UI tool dpkg-reconfigure):
echo "Previous timezone: $(< /etc/timezone), $(readlink /etc/localtime)"
timezone="Etc/UTC"
zoneinfo="/usr/share/zoneinfo/$timezone"
echo "Updating /etc/timezone: $timezone"
echo "$timezone" | tee /etc/timezone
echo "Updating /etc/localtime -> $zoneinfo"
rm -f /etc/localtime
ln -s "$zoneinfo" /etc/localtime
Additional context
n/a
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the requested /etc/wsl.conf configuration and the boot-time timezone reset described in the issue; compare it with the current dpkg-reconfigure and shell workaround. Done means users can configure a timezone different from Windows and that choice persists across WSL2 reboots.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- linux, ubuntu
- Domain
- operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100