how can I change the date and time on Ubuntu

Question

when I go to change the date and time it doesn't work, and I try to unlock but it just won't unlock, if there is any way to make it work please help. I know it isn't very descriptive but I really would like some answers. thank you

Answer 1

From man date

-s, --set=STRING
          set time described by STRING

To change date, use the command in terminal,

sudo date --set=STRING

For example, to change date to 25 Sep 2013 15:00, the command would be,

sudo date --set "25 Sep 2013 15:00:00"

Answer 2

Try this:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

This both lets you configure your timezone (you may just pick the same), and automagically synchronizes your time.

If there's no tzdata package, install it:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tzdata

Answer 3

In 12.04 I don't have to Unlock anything. Just click on the clock on the top bar, and choose Time & Date Settings, once the Time & Date window opens, choose Manually, so you can change the time and date manually; otherwise choose your time zone from the map, and choose Automatic.

Answer 4

See this blog post for setting the date with a machine-friendly format string:

sudo date 120622432007.55

for December 6, 2007, 22:43:55,

and see this answer for setting the date with a human-friendly string:

sudo date --set "15 MAY 2011 1:40 PM"

Answer 5

I had similar issue on my install and the above command gave this error:

date: the argument '19 Sep 2014 20:11:00' lacks a leading '+';
when using an option to specify date(s), any non-option
argument must be a format string beginning with '+'
Try 'date --help'

Help shows -

Usage: date [option]...  [+FORMAT] - (etc)

Added the required plus as indicated to render +19 Sep 2014 20:11:00 which worked.