Linode - Webmin - Setting System Time

Trying to set the system time in Webmin caused the following error:

hwclock failed :

The linode I was running did not expose an hwclock interface. The solution was to simply set the timezone thus:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC /etc/localtime

/usr/share/zoneinfo  contains a number of different timezone files  which you could use. 

# date
Fri Jun 18 13:44:18 UTC 2010

If you wish to run a NTPD on a Xen Linode, you need to make the following changes. Log in as root to your linode.

echo 1 > /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock

To persist the change over a re-boot, add the following to /etc/sysctl.conf

xen.independent_wallclock = 1

The key details are outlined by sleddog in the linode forum here.