"time.is" available in Fedora?

Ask Fedora
1

Hello. New Fedora user. First post.

I am an amateur radio operator, trying to learn digital modes (like FT8), and this requires the system computer to be precise. In Windows 10 I used “time.is” to synch my computer’s clock.

Is there a Fedora equivalent?

Thank you!

NAME=“Fedora Linux”
VERSION=“43 (Workstation Edition)”
RELEASE_TYPE=stable
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=43
VERSION_CODENAME=“”
PRETTY_NAME=“Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition)”
ANSI_COLOR=“0;38;2;60;110;180”
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME=“cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:43”
DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=“fedora”
HOME_URL=“https://fedoraproject.org/”
DOCUMENTATION_URL=“Fedora Linux User Documentation :: Fedora Docs”
SUPPORT_URL=“https://ask.fedoraproject.org/”
BUG_REPORT_URL=“https://bugzilla.redhat.com/”
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT=“Fedora”
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=43
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT=“Fedora”
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=43
SUPPORT_END=2026-12-02
VARIANT=“Workstation Edition”
VARIANT_ID=workstation

2

How precise do you need to be?

Fedor comes default with chrony which can keep the time synchronized to public ntp servers, and you may be able to chose some time server which are more accurate thant the default ntp pool.

1 Like
3

time.is is a website, which is also available in Fedora of course. However, it sounds like you want to sync with it, but how could one sync with that website if not manually?

I guess what you are searching for might be network time syncronization using NTP. In Fedora, this is usually being done with chrony, which can be configured by modifying `/etc/chrony.conf`. For details, please see `man chrony.conf`

4

Using Network Time Protocol (NTP) your Fedora system will have the correct time to a few milliseconds.

This is what time.is reports for me The difference from Time.is was +0.002 seconds (±0.025 seconds).

FYI Windows only tries to keep time to within a few seconds, not milli seconds as unix systems.

You can see the status of the NTP with this command:

chronyc sources
MS Name/IP address         Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================
^* ntp1.dmz.terryburton.co.>     1   9   377    27   +727us[ +711us] +/- 5996us
^+ 2a10:d582:2b6a:123:1:123>     2   8   377   159    -17us[  -15us] +/-   13ms
^+ any.time.nl                   2  10   377   558   -580us[-1860us] +/- 6174us
^- x.ns.gin.ntt.net              2   7   377    84   -381us[ -389us] +/-   88ms

This is from my desktop and you can time source it is use is one marked with ^*.
The last column shows estimate accuracy of the source.

5

Try using timedatectl and see the output.
It should look something like this

$ timedatectl
               Local time: Mon 2025-12-29 12:03:43 CST
           Universal time: Mon 2025-12-29 18:03:43 UTC
                 RTC time: Mon 2025-12-29 18:03:43
                Time zone: America/Chicago (CST, -0600)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

Note that RTC should show time as UTC .
As long as your machine is connected to the internet UTC should be matched to the RTC within a very few milliseconds and local time should reflect the time zone offset.

I am using various ham digi modes (JS8Call, fldigi, wsjt-x, winlink, and others) and all have no problems with time matching.

For fedora the time sync using chronyd for NTP is automatic.

6

Within 2 seconds should be fine. But, since I loaded Fedora I have set the clock. I may not have done it correctly, because today was another method (I had to “sudo” stop NTP, set the clock and “sudo” start NTP.).

7

Thank you! I will read the manual. I appreciate your pointing me in a good direction.

8

Awesome info! Much appreciated!!

9

Thank you very much.

10

That should not have been an issue if you set the time/date using the system settings panel. Each time ntpd queries the server it looks at the present RTC time as well as the return from the server to compare. Note that ntpd is not a standard service on fedora. It was replaced by chronyd quite some time back.

You could easily use timedatectl set-time [localtime] to set the clock without interfering with NTP (regardless of the app that provides it).
Consider using man timedatectl to see what commands are available and how it can be used to configure the system time/date/timezone/RTC settings.

Setting the system time is independent of having chronyd (NTP) running or stopped.

11

I had to reset the clock again. This time I had NOT turned off my computer. I went away for a couple of hours, returned, and the clock was at 11:38. The current time was 15:38. So, I have reset it another time.

When running Windows 10 this issue never happened. I am at a loss about the difference an OS should make with the hardware.

Here are the terminal commands I used:
Set Time and Date:

  1. Stop NTP service (if running):
    sudo systemctl stop systemd-timesyncd
  2. Set the date and time manually:
    sudo timedatectl set-time 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'
  3. Alternatively, use the date command:
    sudo date --set="YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" or sudo date -s "25 Sep 2025 15:00:00"

I ended up using 1 & 3. #2 did not work.

I used the suggestion in your email and got this:
davidmcguire@fedora:~$ timedatectl set-time 15:46:00
Failed to set time: Automatic time synchronization is enabled
davidmcguire@fedora:~$

CHRONYD is installed

restarted it in terminal.

davidmcguire@fedora:~$ sudo systemctl restart chronyd
[sudo] password for davidmcguire:
davidmcguire@fedora:~$

The learning continues…

12

You must have only one service doing time sync.
Either chrony or systemd, not both.
I recommend chrony.

13

Have you set the BIOS time to UTC? If not do so and use timedatectl to tell fedora that rtc is in utc.

What time zone are you in? In the time difference because of local time vs. Utc?

14

I didn’t see anyone mention this, but if you want a quick way to confirm the accuracy run the “chronyc tracking” command and look for the “System time” line. That will show an offset. On my example below my laptop is less than 1 msec from correct time.

chronyc tracking

Reference ID    : 481E2359 (t1.time.bf1.yahoo.com)
Stratum         : 3
Ref time (UTC)  : Tue Dec 30 01:09:46 2025
System time     : 0.000719343 seconds slow of NTP time
Last offset     : -0.000191236 seconds
RMS offset      : 0.000408990 seconds
Frequency       : 10.749 ppm slow
Residual freq   : -0.012 ppm
Skew            : 0.281 ppm
Root delay      : 0.034308784 seconds
Root dispersion : 0.003260243 seconds
Update interval : 1029.2 seconds
Leap status     : Normal
15

Which may mean that the time is already set correctly. Do show the output of timedatectl.

In a normal Workstation install, all this is set up automatically including the time zone selection and synchronizing with the default ntp servers.

16

This is from my post above and yours should look similar.

I don’t know, nor really care what your TZ may be but it is important for fedora to have RTC match UTC. It is also critical that only one NTP service is running. By default fedora uses chronyd and if you have another running at the same time they will (at some point and intermittently) conflict and can easily cause errors to appear.

It appears you are using systemd-timesyncd so is it possible both chronyd and systemd-timesyncd are running?
systemctl status chronyd
systemctl status systemd-timesyncd

$ systemctl status chronyd
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2025-12-22 21:33:45 CST; 1 week 0 days ago
 Invocation: f13de324d45f4f6b8541945e9eb7614e
       Docs: man:chronyd(8)
             man:chrony.conf(5)
   Main PID: 1246 (chronyd)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 38245)
     Memory: 5M (peak: 7M)
        CPU: 657ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/chronyd.service
             └─1246 /usr/sbin/chronyd -n -F 2

Dec 29 02:36:49 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 104.168.76.123 offline
Dec 29 02:36:49 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Can't synchronise: no selectable sources (4 unreachable sources)
Dec 29 02:36:49 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 172.235.32.243 offline
Dec 29 02:37:53 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 205.233.73.201 online
Dec 29 02:37:53 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 172.235.32.243 online
Dec 29 02:37:53 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 23.186.168.126 online
Dec 29 02:37:53 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Source 104.168.76.123 online
Dec 29 02:37:53 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Added source 192.168.4.1
Dec 29 02:37:57 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Selected source 205.233.73.201 (2.fedora.pool.ntp.org)
Dec 30 09:23:01 eagle.home.domain chronyd[1246]: Selected source 172.235.32.243 (2.fedora.pool.ntp.org)


$ systemctl status systemd-timesyncd
○ systemd-timesyncd.service - Network Time Synchronization
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-timesyncd.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:systemd-timesyncd.service(8)
   Mem peak: 0B
        CPU: 0

Note that chronyd is enabled by default and systemd-timesyncd is disabled by default.

Yes, you may need to stop the ntp service before setting time from the cli, but from within the gnome settings panel that apparently is not required (or can be stopped and restarted from the same panel)

17

Lapsed WA5RPB here. Do you need to digital modes to work for “emergency” communications or with functional internet and network time servers? Are you planning to participate in AREDN (Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network) activities?

time.is FAQ recommends using NTP for more accurate time.

18

Thank you!

19

I’m in MST. I had not checked the BIOS. It was fine when I had Win10 on the laptop…before overwriting it all with Fedora. I’ll check.

20

Thank you for the suggestion. And, I followed an earlier comment and used Chrony. My readout is:

Reference ID : 1796297A (s2-b.time.mci1.us.rozint.net)
Stratum : 3
Ref time (UTC) : Thu Jan 01 21:17:58 2026
System time : 0.000000366 seconds fast of NTP time
Last offset : +0.000746335 seconds
RMS offset : 0.004797003 seconds
Frequency : 2.584 ppm fast
Residual freq : +1.200 ppm
Skew : 22.416 ppm
Root delay : 0.065292016 seconds
Root dispersion : 0.003611751 seconds
Update interval : 0.9 seconds
Leap status : Normal