Current default time zone: 'Europe/Rome'
Local time is now:      Thu Jul  9 13:45:59 CEST 2026.
Universal Time is now:  Thu Jul  9 11:45:59 UTC 2026.
Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.

think the .reg file trick shared by Mr. RedGreen925 is very helpful;
it functioned on 1 computer that i use here quite reliably; however, it takes the windows machine about a half or minute or so to adjust; but otherwise it seem to function; but probably, it needs an internet connection to function.

where i live the UTC "universal" time seem not so much off, so i am not at odds with it;
very mjuch more so with the "current local time" which is affront, so calld "DST" "ora legale" "Sommerzeit" etc ~

basically in small room can get 3 different times depending on where i watch ~

TV gives me like                   07.39 (UTC)
my smartwatch on wrist        08.39 (local-time) > since have the wrist-watch not synced for along time.
radio-clock in kitchen-space 09-39 (local-"summer"-time) > the stupid does "align" itself via radio probably

the local-time is most true to the sun since it probaly 15min ahead of loca-tun-time~
and UTC is probably 45min behind suntime ~
whereas the "summer-time" "day-light-saving-time" if full 75minutes "ahead" of sun and a real bummer so doing my best to ignore it ~ but since it is ~ "legal" time, well, not fully to ignore, but thats for another topic.

it would be nice to set the time in BIOS, and that could be it.

But when I used to struggle with it, the time changing from boot to boot, I used hwclock to make the system time hardware time and visa-vis.

Set the Hardware Clock to the current System Time.

# hwclock --systohc

Set the System Time from the Hardware Clock.

# hwclock --hctosys

# hwclock --set --date="8:20:05"

Check out hwclock --help for more info.

when date/time is wrong most sites refuses my connection attemps.

All you needed to do was install ntpsec.

ntpsec-ntpdate is for single-shot use: that was wrong advice.

Yes, chrony will also work, but you don't need to switch software family to get this behaviour.

If you run only Devuan is enough to install the "chrony" package.

If you are dual-boot with Windows it's recommended to have both system set to UTC time. Windows does not use UTC by default, and if you are dual-booting, this will conflict with Devuan.  That's why the installer will see that you have Windows installed and will set the time as Windows to local time.
To  make the system time to UTC in Windows just download and run the registry file that RedGreen925 suggested.
In Devuan do this:

Check if the system time is set to UTC or not:
$ cat /etc/adjtime

Marks the hardware clock standard as UTC in Devuan and verify
$ sudo hwclock --systohc --utc
$ cat /etc/adjtime

Force chrony to  re-sync:
sudo chronyc makestep

I does indirectly. When I shut down my PC the HW clock is updated.

In SYSVINIT this is done by /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh for example. But it works independent of what your systemtime was set.
It does it's job too, if there is no NTP or if you've changed your systemtime manually.

For example, Raspberry, at least up to models 4 (didn't know about 5) doesn't have a RTC. ("fake-hwclock" here is not the same)

But independent from all said before, you can go the way "vice versa" and set some type of hardware-vlock (for example DCF77, GPS or what ever) as source for NTP.

Greetings, FM81

As fas as I know it doesn't. (And I'm not sure, if this was changed with ntpsec?)

I does indirectly. When I shut down my PC the HW clock is updated. ntp and ntpsec are the same.

I am pretty sure any device supporting a clock has a RTC on board.

would have to guess, but apparently i am able to mess up the time every other time i boot into windows and back , or so ~

there have been kind peopel on this forum who told me how to fix  time with windows tricks ]

but those have tricks not lasted that long also use several computer , and what function on one, seem not always stable on another. . it has probably to do aswell with the computers itself; and maybe also language, regional settings may interfere?

maybe some day we can get to to the bottom of it.

It has to do with windows always setting the system clock to local time. Most Linux installs default to Universal Time, the UTC method o doing it. A .reg file download to make the required change.

https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/up … C-Time.zip

From this page.

https://www.howtogeek.com/323390/how-to … l-booting/

ntp sets the HW clock.

As fas as I know it doesn't. (And I'm not sure, if this was changed with ntpsec?)
NTP sets the systemtime only ...

If NTP would be depending on the HW-clock, how should it work with devices (e.g. singleborad-computers) without any such?

Best Regards, FM81

Do you know if that sets OS time only, or hardware time too?

ntp sets the HW clock. The rest is job of the operating system.

In Linux its standard to set the HW re. the bios clock to UTC. During installation you configure your location and timezone, and the OS then generates the local time from that.

Windows per default is running on local time, i.e. the bios clock is set to local time. This creates 2h time shifts on a Linux/Windows dual boot system. The best fix is to set Windows to UTC.

but i live somehwere else, and i am however constrained to select a region that has "english mapping" and hence everything goes tupsy turvy;

this is probably a limitating on the lclassic debian-inux installer.

there have been kind peopel on this forum who told me how to fix  time with windows tricks ]

but those have tricks not lasted that long also use several computer , and what function on one, seem not always stable on another. . it has probably to do aswell with the computers itself; and maybe also language, regional settings may interfere?

maybe some day we can get to to the bottom of it.

sudo apt install ntpsec-ntpdate

is valid for devuan 6.0

sudo ntpdate-debian

2026-07-02 16:39:31.356971 (+0200) +0.170255 +/- 0.010254 0.debian.pool.ntp.org 37.247.53.178 s2 no-leap

but with dual-boot windows + linux there is still woes, at least on computers that i use.