Written 25 Aug 2026. This is a how-to, not a product card.

Set the computer clock to your house

Logs, updates, and weekly backups only make sense if the computer uses your local time. timedatectl sets the city zone. The computer keeps the clock correct over the network.

The computer needs to know which city clock to use, or Sunday 2am backups become wrong. A timezone is that city clock. NTP is how the computer asks the internet for the correct time, so it does not drift.

Skip if the clock is already right

On the computer, ask:

timedatectl

Or the short check:

date

If you see your local zone and a time that matches the house, you are done. You don't need this note. Year wrong, HTTPS failing, or apt complaining about dates? That is when the computer's clock is wrong.

Why it matters

A weekly timer in back up the house folder every week without remembering wakes on the computer's idea of Sunday morning. Log lines and apt timestamps use the same clock. If the computer still looks like UTC, first-timers stare at a "wrong" hour and think the job failed.

List zones lightly

Pick the city zone that matches the house. America/Chicago is one example. It is not the only one. Browse a short list:

timedatectl list-timezones | grep America

Swap America for Europe, Asia, or Africa if that is where the house is. Choose the city closest to home, not a random airport code.

Set it

On Debian or Ubuntu, set the zone with timedatectl. Swap America/Chicago for your city:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Chicago

Confirm:

timedatectl

You should see Time zone with your city, and a sensible local time. On modern Ubuntu and Debian, NTP or timesync is usually already on. If the status line shows NTP: inactive, turn it on:

sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

That is the whole network-time step. The computer asks the internet for the correct time and keeps it.

Check

Ask once more:

date

It should match the house clock. When you are ready for a weekly copy, that is back up the house folder every week without remembering.

What next

If the weekly timer is not set yet, set it after one manual copy worked: back up the house folder every week without remembering. Once a week, keep the computer updated. Clock still years off after this? When the computer's clock is wrong. Don't buy a GPS clock or an RTC hat for this.

Skip

• Skip RTC modules and battery clock hats.
• Skip GPS NTP appliances.
• Skip dual-boot Windows clock lectures.
• Skip changing the BIOS clock by hand if NTP works.