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I'm using Ubuntu 14.04 an my machine and since the last upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04 the date&time is missing in the top panel of Unity. This machine was originally installed with Ubuntu 12.10. I upgraded it from 12.10→13.04, from 13.04→13.10 and last week from 13.10→14.04.

I tried every solution found in this question: Missing date & time from top panel of Unity Desktop. But nothing of all this works :-(

I tried the following things:

  • reinstalling indicator-datetime
  • sudo apt-get remove --purge indicator-datetime and install it again
  • sudo dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
  • sudo killall unity-panel-service

and of course log out/log in again and so on...

Where can I find log files for the indicator or where could help me otherwise with this problem?

Trying to debug:

$ locate indicator-datetime-service
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service
$ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service
Indicator-Datetime-Message: indicator-datetime exiting; failed/lost bus ownership
7
  • 1
    locate indicator-datetime-service to find where it is installed then run it in terminal. Report if there any error message.
    – user.dz
    Apr 30, 2014 at 18:31
  • @Sneetsher $ locate indicator-datetime-service /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service $ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service Indicator-Datetime-Message: indicator-datetime exiting; failed/lost bus ownership $ sudo /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service no error output, when running indicator-datetime-service with sudo
    – Bernd
    May 5, 2014 at 8:43
  • failed/lost bus ownership means it was running already.
    – user.dz
    May 5, 2014 at 10:40
  • try reseting its configuration dconf reset -f /com/canonical/indicator/datetime/ . didn't work try pkill -f datetime then /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service
    – user.dz
    May 5, 2014 at 10:49
  • 2
    dconf reset -f /com/canonical/indicator/datetime/ worked and it shows the time again. But I think I found a bug and I think I know what causes the issue. Are there any logs for the datetime-indicator to verify my assumption?
    – Bernd
    May 6, 2014 at 6:49

8 Answers 8

138

Try reseting its configuration

dconf reset -f /com/canonical/indicator/datetime/ 

If it didn't show up try kill it, it should restart

pkill -f datetime

For similar cases, better to explain how you may get it:

  1. Check if it is running, if yes then possibly a configuration problem

    $ ps ax | grep -i indicator-datetime
     2863 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service
     4043 pts/0    S+     0:00 grep -i indicator-datetime
    
  2. Check for where is its configuration. Look for /etc/ or dconf in /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/. List package files using:

    $ dpkg -L indicator-datetime
    [...]
    /etc/xdg/autostart/indicator-datetime.desktop
    /usr
    /usr/share
    /usr/share/glib-2.0
    /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
    /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/com.canonical.indicator.datetime.gschema.xml
    [...]
    
  3. Locate its dconf path:

    $ grep path /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/com.canonical.indicator.datetime.gschema.xml
        <schema id="com.canonical.indicator.datetime" path="/com/canonical/indicator/datetime/" gettext-domain="indicator-datetime">
    
8
  • 3
    the dconf reset did it for me, thx Jun 3, 2014 at 10:20
  • 1
    I had the same problem after resetting 14.04 and your "dconf reset" did it for me, thanks +1 Nov 12, 2014 at 21:29
  • 14
    dconf didn't help, but pkill did the trick for me.
    – Lambart
    Feb 17, 2015 at 18:09
  • Thanks the dconf reset worked, i didn't even need to kill the datetime process
    – danidee
    Jul 18, 2015 at 23:28
  • 4
    Warning: the dconf trick doesn't just restore the clock. It also resets your clock settings, so if you have customized them... goodbye to your settings. I wish I hadn't tried that -- pkill datetime had already restored the clock to my UI.
    – Lambart
    Sep 25, 2015 at 22:53
20

I had exactly the same problem, which that some Language Support libraries are missing.

If you go to:

SettingsLanguage Support

The system will automatically update the regional formats and the time and date will be back after you log out and in.

3
  • Tried, but there was no missing language support
    – Bernd
    May 5, 2014 at 8:45
  • 4
    Actually, weird as it sounds, I can confirm this solution. Apparently starting the langauge support panel, some broken libs are indeed (i guess not downloaded but) reenabled. Therefore a +1
    – matv1
    Aug 30, 2014 at 22:42
  • the datetime indicator uses a calendar which requires specific language based format. It seems that it's suffice to take the indicator down :)
    – psukys
    Jan 7, 2016 at 12:03
20

This worked with me when I faced the same problem:

killall unity-panel-service

without 'sudo' by the way.

2
  • +1 I had the missing-clock-problem a few times already, and this worked reliably as an immediate fix. For the record, indicator-datetime is installed on my machine, so apparently no need to remove/purge it for me.
    – bluenote10
    Nov 29, 2015 at 9:10
  • +1solved Bug Feb 29, 2016 at 5:53
1

Just kill the indicator-datetime-service process. (This process will get started automatically)

For ex:

$ ps ax | grep -i indicator-datetime
2863 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-datetime/indicator-datetime-service
4043 pts/0    S+     0:00 grep -i indicator-datetime

kill -9 <pid-of-indicator-datetime-service>
kill -9 2863
0

Under System Settings, open Time & Date. Choose the Clock tab to the right of the Time & Date tab. Check Show a clock in the menu bar.

Under In the clock, show, select Weekday, Date and Month, Year or whichever of those you want.

1
  • 2
    The clock tab is greyed out for me - I can't edit the settings there.... Apr 18, 2015 at 9:08
0

Removing the indicator-datetime doesn't remove configuration files and settings under Clock will be grayed out. Doing sudo apt-get purge indicator-datetime; sudo apt-get install indicator-datetime; kill -9 -1; will surely work.

0

i have been trying to fix my time and language icon missing on the panel. i tried many commands but no use but i finally found myself

  • click alt+right mouse on the panel
  • click add to panel
  • double click on indicator applet complete
    your missing icons could be recovered, i had successed by this methode

  • 1
    • please read this Jan 1, 2018 at 15:21
    0

    I am using Ubuntu 16.04 and was facing the same issue. I tried all above-mentioned solution but still facing the same problem. I resolved the problem by deleting file "libxm2.so.2" file from the location "/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2". First, check if the same file exists at multiple locations on your system. If yes then delete all except from "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2" Warning: Please backup before deleting this file to avoid any other system issue.

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