CoreELEC 22: time zone bias

Development Development & Testing
1

Would like to report this error:

2026-02-21 10:14:10.006 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: Europe/Warsaw, PL
2026-02-21 10:14:10.008 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: Poland, PL
2026-02-21 10:14:10.008 T:2581     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::set_hostname ## AM9Box
2026-02-21 10:14:10.011 T:2581     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::set_keyboard_layout ## us
2026-02-21 10:14:10.533 T:2581     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## updates::updateThread ## Started
2026-02-21 10:14:10.534 T:2581     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## updates::set_auto_update ## manual
2026-02-21 10:14:10.747 T:2689     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## xdbus Monitor started. ## 
2026-02-21 10:14:10.783 T:2690     info <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## _service_::run ## WAITING:

I think it might be the reason for some addones are unable to determine in correct way a time zone bias.

2026-02-21 10:14:10.842 T:2648     info <general>: script.module.thetvdb --> Initialized
2026-02-21 10:14:12.103 T:2648    error <general>: Unable to obtain time zone bias!
2026-02-21 10:14:19.392 T:2648    error <general>: Skipped 1 duplicate messages..

I checked with other timezone country in CoreELEC settings. Result is the same.
I checked multi platform and result is:

  • Kodi 21 on CoreELEC → No timezone bias errors
  • Kodi 22 nightly on Windows → No timezone bias errors
  • Kodi 22 nightly on CoreELEC → Error appears
    This suggests the issue may be introduced in CoreELEC 22.

Timezone configuration on CoreELEC appears correct:

  • /etc/localtime → /var/run/localtime
  • /var/run/localtime → /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Warsaw
  • /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Warsaw exists and is valid
    There is no /etc/timezone file (which is normal on many minimal systems).
    Therefore, tzdata and localtime symlinks appear properly configured.

but the initial errors:

2026-02-21 10:14:10.006 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: Europe/Warsaw, PL
2026-02-21 10:14:10.008 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: Poland, PL

when CoreELEC starts suggests something is wrong.

If further debugging information is required (strace, additional logs, testing specific builds), I’m happy to provide it.

And - thanks guys you reopened the forum!

2

Did you set timezone in CE settings?

And how to replicate this issue?

3

Yes, I have:
Timezone country: Poland
Timezone: Europe/Warsaw

and timezone automatically appears when Timezone country is selected in which there is only one timezone for that country.

but as I mentioned: whatever I select there, like for example:
Timezone country: United States
Timezone: America/Detroit

result is the same after CoreELEC device reboot:

2026-02-21 04:59:02.411 T:2589    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: America/Detroit, US
2026-02-21 04:59:02.413 T:2589    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: United States, US
4

And what exactly is the issue here? Warning in log only or does it have some problems?

5

The result is that script.tv.show.next.aired addon provide wrong time for episodes and also spam in kodi.log with repeating entries:

2026-02-21 11:02:25.069 T:2678    error <general>: Unable to obtain time zone bias!
2026-02-21 11:02:27.809 T:2678    error <general>: Unable to obtain time zone bias!

I’m just trying to help to fix this issue.
I don’t know where it is originating from but as I reported: comparing behavior how it is in Kodi 22 on Windows OS and how it is on CoreELEC 21 to me it looks like this issue with:

2026-02-21 11:02:22.821 T:2599    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: Europe/Warsaw, PL
2026-02-21 11:02:22.824 T:2599    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: Poland, PL

appeared in CoreELEC 22 which I suspect is the root cause for “Unable to obtain time zone bias!” error.

6

Post whole kodi log. I don’t see such line here even if I select same country as you.

7

Fresh latest Nightly build on Odroid-N2 installation:

8

There is no such “bias” word in the log.

That’s why I asked you to tell exactly how to reproduce. Why no one else has same issue?

9

OK, let me explain again.

CoreELEC Kodi 22 Nightly generate errors at OS start:

2026-02-21 10:14:10.006 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: Europe/Warsaw, PL
2026-02-21 10:14:10.008 T:2581    error <general>: ## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: Poland, PL

There are no such errors in CoreELEC Kodi 21.

Are you able to fix these two errors?

Why I’m asking for that?
Because I suspect it cause issue in Kodi add-on.

Why I suspect it cause issue in Kodi add-on?
Because in CoreELEC 21 with the same Kodi add-on there are no errors:
error <general>: Unable to obtain time zone bias!

10

This 2 lines are not an error. Just wrong type of message (which will be fixed in next nightly).

Still no idea how to get this bias thing. HOW TO REPRODUCE?

11

I would like to confirm that this issue is now fully understood and resolved.
When a TV show in the video database has: tvshow.c05 = ‘1969-12-31’
Kodi 22 logs the following message in kodi.log:
error <general>: Unable to obtain time zone bias!

Important observations:
Kodi 21 → no error
Kodi 22 → logs timezone bias error
Same database (MyVideos131 for Kodi 21, MyVideos141 for Kodi 22)
Same hardware
Same timezone
This clearly indicates a regression in date/time or timezone bias handling introduced in Kodi 22.
The value 1969-12-31 was already present in the older MyVideos131 database (Kodi 21) and likely originated years ago during scraping when no premiere date was available.
Kodi 21 handled this value silently, while Kodi 22 does not.

After setting:

UPDATE tvshow
SET c05 = NULL
WHERE c05 = '1969-12-31';

the error no longer appears.

At the beginning of the investigation, I suspected the issue might be related to CoreELEC because of these log entries:

## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone city: Europe/Warsaw, PL
## CoreELEC Addon ## system::load_values ## current timezone country: Poland, PL

However, this turned out to be unrelated.
I apologize for the earlier false alarm and for any confusion it may have caused.
It took me around 10 hours of debugging to identify the real root cause.