"timezone" HVM pref still doesn't work

[mattmccutchen]

When setting the timezone pref for my Windows HVM in an attempt to fix the time in the VM, using qubes-core-dom0-3.0.25-1.fc20.x86_64, I still observe the following problems noted in #1184:

• setting positive offset makes VM unbootable (AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'lower'): Looks like the check actually causing the boot problem is this one, not the one that was changed in #1184.
• setting negative value doesn't work (qvm-prefs: error: no such option: -3): Looks like no attempt was made to fix this in #1184.

I cannot reopen #1184 so I'm filing a new bug report. My original problem (which I'll report separately to qubes-users) ended up being unrelated to this pref, so this bug is low priority to me.

[plushambush]

• The first problem (positive offset) can be fixed with a simple patch:

--- 01QubesHVm.py       2016-09-07 18:52:37.394008910 +0300
+++ 01QubesHVm.py.new   2016-09-07 18:52:23.155008444 +0300
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@
         attrs['maxmem'].pop('save')
         attrs['maxmem']['func'] = lambda x: self.memory
         attrs['timezone'] = { 'default': 'localtime',
-                              'save': lambda: str(self.timezone) }
+                              'save': lambda: str(self.timezone),
+                              'func': lambda x: str(x)  }
         attrs['qrexec_installed'] = { 'default': False,
             'attr': '_qrexec_installed',
             'save': lambda: str(self._qrexec_installed) }
@@ -249,11 +250,11 @@
             params['time_basis'] = 'localtime'
             params['timeoffset'] = '0'
         elif self.timezone.isdigit():
-            params['time_basis'] = 'UTC'
+            params['time_basis'] = 'utc'
             params['timeoffset'] = self.timezone
         else:
             print >>sys.stderr, "WARNING: invalid 'timezone' value: %s" % self.timezone
-            params['time_basis'] = 'UTC'
+            params['time_basis'] = 'utc'
             params['timeoffset'] = '0'
         return params

I can make a pull request with this commit if it's ok

• The second problem (negative offset) is OptionParser's (Optik) module (used by qvm-prefs) issue:
  It treats any "-" followed by a character as (short) option token and thus can not recognize a negative integer.

         elif arg[:1] == "-" and len(arg) > 1:
                # process a cluster of short options (possibly with
                # value(s) for the last one only)
                self._process_short_opts(rargs, values)

Imho this can be completely fixed only by replacing option parsing module with some other or doing dirty tricks by inheriting OptionParser and overwriting some parsing methods in inherited class.

I managed to fix it and get it working but only for the case of a single property value like
qvm-prefs -s <vmname> <property> <negative integer value>
it still throws an error when one try to set a property with multiple values (are there any?) of which some are negative integers like
qvm-prefs -s <vmname> <property> <value1> <value2> <negative integer value3> <value4> ...

[plushambush]

• The first problem (positive offset) can be fixed with a simple patch:

--- 01QubesHVm.py       2016-09-07 18:52:37.394008910 +0300
+++ 01QubesHVm.py.new   2016-09-07 18:52:23.155008444 +0300
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@
         attrs['maxmem'].pop('save')
         attrs['maxmem']['func'] = lambda x: self.memory
         attrs['timezone'] = { 'default': 'localtime',
-                              'save': lambda: str(self.timezone) }
+                              'save': lambda: str(self.timezone),
+                              'func': lambda x: str(x)  }
         attrs['qrexec_installed'] = { 'default': False,
             'attr': '_qrexec_installed',
             'save': lambda: str(self._qrexec_installed) }
@@ -249,11 +250,11 @@
             params['time_basis'] = 'localtime'
             params['timeoffset'] = '0'
         elif self.timezone.isdigit():
-            params['time_basis'] = 'UTC'
+            params['time_basis'] = 'utc'
             params['timeoffset'] = self.timezone
         else:
             print >>sys.stderr, "WARNING: invalid 'timezone' value: %s" % self.timezone
-            params['time_basis'] = 'UTC'
+            params['time_basis'] = 'utc'
             params['timeoffset'] = '0'
         return params

I can make a pull request with this commit if it's ok

• The second problem (negative offset) is OptionParser's (Optik) module (used by qvm-prefs) issue:
  It treats any "-" followed by a character as (short) option token and thus can not recognize a negative integer.

         elif arg[:1] == "-" and len(arg) > 1:
                # process a cluster of short options (possibly with
                # value(s) for the last one only)
                self._process_short_opts(rargs, values)

Imho this can be completely fixed only by replacing option parsing module with some other or doing dirty tricks by inheriting OptionParser and overwriting some parsing methods in inherited class.

I managed to fix it and get it working but only for the case of a single property value like
qvm-prefs -s <vmname> <property> <negative integer value>
it still throws an error when one try to set a property with multiple values (are there any?) of which some are negative integers like
qvm-prefs -s <vmname> <property> <value1> <value2> <negative integer value3> <value4> ...