Why is there a time-gap of 2 hours between default user-account and administrator account

I was really wondering, WHY there is a 2-hour time-gap/time-difference (I can see this in my ublock origin/umatrix logger), the time mentioned in uBlock logger, is 2 hours earlier than real/system time, when using Firefox opened in my Manjaro (standard/normal/default) user-account, while this is NOT occurring when Firefox is started in my administrator-account?
Ublock Origin and Umatrix both has been installed from within Manjaro (and not as extension from within Firefox). By the way, I’ve installed Manjaro XFCE as a solitary system on an old Windows laptop.

Educated guess: Your two user accounts have their local clocks set to a different timezone.

Expert advice: You should never ─ repeat: never ─ run a browser as root. As the matter of fact, you should never even log into the GUI as root.

Did I mention “never”?

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Thanks for your reaction.

As far as I know, is a ‘Administrator account’ not (exactly) the same as ‘root’. In my opinion it is a ‘default’ user account with higher/more rights. Root is the ultimate Administrator with ALL rights. Please confirm if this is correct or not.
In Manjaro settings manager I can see that my user-account is mentioned as ‘Standard’, while my Admin account is mentioned as ‘Administrator’. I can also verify that the Administrator-account is not part of the group ‘root’ (no mark visible in ‘root’)

Secondly, both local time clocks, as well on the administrator-account as on the standard user-account, are set identical and both are recognized as identical by Manjaro (time in toolbar).
Bu the way, time had automatically been configured at Manjaro installation and set manually by me at installation, to follow Europe/AMS timezone. My local (bios) system-time is correctly set and my system-time will be synchronized with the internet (managed by my router).

So, I’m still not sure what’s the reason of the 2 hour time-gap in my Firefox browser (made visible with the logger in uBlock Origin and uMatrix).

The concept of an account named “Administrator” is a Microsoft Windows thing. In UNIX systems, there is only the root account and all other accounts, but some of those other accounts can be given the ability to temporarily become root.

If you are certain that both accounts have the same timezone set, then perhaps it is something that must specifically be configured in those browser plugins themselves? (It shouldn’t, but one never knows.)

I’m still confused and not fully ‘convinced’.

Should my conclusion be that the primary installed Manjaro account is always a root-account?
When the answer is irrefutable YES, than I’ve unintentionally used my root account without knowing. That isn’t really desirable.

But, if the root-account is only used/activated by me when explicitly asked for, than I should have used my admin account as a ‘non-root’ account (with or without sudo rights).
In this case, everything stays within acceptable security parameters…

No. The “Administrator” flag simply means that the account is permitted to run sudo. The account itself does not have root permissions though.

Wow, that’s good news for me nevertheless :grinning:
Yet one more question (answer) to go…

i think it’s firefox sync, when you stop using firefox on 1 device, it sometimes doesn’t sync right away, usually because you closed it & it waits till next it’s open.

Maybe Firefox is part of the problem. Firefox is mostly used on the same device (laptop), but through different (manjaro) user accounts, as well through standard user accounts (no sudo rights) as administrator accounts (user with sudo rights). I used to log out (from manjaro) when changing user account in the same session. So no manjaro session will be saved anyway.

So, I still keep wondering why?
It has definitely something to do with the type of account I use for that particular Firefox moment.

But, could it also be related to something else…

I reinstalled Manjaro yesterday and noticed that the timezone EU/AMS resulted in a time-gap from 2-hours difference (2 hours later in stead of legacy time). Only the manually selected (old) configuration of Etc/GMT gives me the right time for The Netherlands.

Is it a bug or something else…

In windows often the BIOS-hardware-clock is set to local timezone. This is usually not done in linux this way. In Linux you would set BIOS-hardware-clock to GMT ± 0 and linux will correct this when running to your (hopefully correctly set) local timezone.
Is it possible that this is related to your clock-issue ?

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It is correct that my laptop originally is/was a Windows 7 machine (64-bit).
For several years Windows has been replaced by whatever Linux version only, but mainly Manjaro.
The original hard disk (MBR file system) is replaced by a GPT formatted and LUKS encrypted ssd-disk.
In the BIOS the internal clock is set on LOCAL REAL time (not Etc/GMT or what else).
When I adjust local time in BIOS 2 hours earlier than local time, the ‘problem’ is also ‘solved’, but it is not the way it should be solved.
System (hardware) time should always be dominant, leading and should always be accepted by the installed operating system. So, in my opinion, EU/AMS should always show my LOCAL (BIOS) time.
If not, there is somehow/somewhere a flaw/bug or the software/configuration of Manjaro is corrupted.

So, the question remains, why does Manjaro NOT listen to my system time through accepting physical/local time as dominant and real time. I think it should, unless, the internet rules differs from reality.
I was just thinking that maybe EU/AMS time is some (new?) international standard that differs from, and is dominant above, local/real time. If this is the case, then I think it really sucks.
The consequence of this ‘newly introduced’ global standard could be/is that providers/data-centers and other people with access, can manipulate all data that is passing during this ‘time gap’.
If this is really the new reality, I think it could be (or maybe is!) a global main flaw in all global internet systems… Red Alert!

It seems to be a PEBKAC mis-configuration.

Nope, pretty sure it’s the abbreviation of the Europe/Amsterdam timezone. :grin:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_time#Time_standard

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Those who do not understand UNIX are doomed to reinvent it ─ poorly. :grin:

UNIX normally always stores the hardware clock in UTC (GMT), and the system will then adjust the offset for each user account depending on their location, provided that the system was configured properly.

Microsoft Windows was not created as a multiuser operating system ─ let alone a networked one ─ but as a graphical user interface on top of DOS. That’s why Windows still defaults to storing the hardware clock in local time.

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There is a real problem Linux solves/prevents with its way!

  • For comunicating round the world there is allover the same system-time (UTC). A timestamp created on any linux-system is valid and shows the right time on any other linux-system. And this without knowing the timezone of the sender :sunglasses: This is not only usefull for servers.
  • The second problem may hit you when your timezone has daylight saving time offsets. Twice in a year the time “jumps” by 60 Minutes back/forth. This does affect programs that work through that night, or that calcualte time-offsets. (UTC does not jump)
    root-tip-dual-boot-manjaro-and-windows : system-clock
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UTC solves everything. I just didn’t know.
I know a lot, but do NOT know a lot more…

Thanks for your answer.

In my (old) BIOS I can only set the time, no timezones.

You are absolute right, I’ve grown up with DOS and Windows, and after many many years, I saw the Linux light shining bright. :innocent: Gladly there is/are many great alternatives, but Manjaro is definitely my favorite. So ye, I have to invest a lot of time to repair my lack of knowledge.
Gladly, a human is never too old to learn.

Thx for your shining ‘wisdom’.

The link mdt has in his post :point_up: shows the way to the ach-linux-wiki about system-time. This shows how to tell linux wehter the hardware-time ist UTC or not.

Did you set privacy.resistFingerprinting to true in the Firefox’s about:config of your user account?

Thx for the tip.

I already know of coarse the road to the wiki of arch. What I didn’t know is the meaning of the :point_up: emoticon (and many other I believe). Every day I learn a little bit more.
I really want to understand and learn the basic rules of Linux (Unix) bit by bit.
I love the concept op open source (and therefore Linux based OS); I never want to leave the basic path of the Unix concept, as far as I know and do understand.