Time and Date missing from Ubuntu

I’ve been trying to use linux more and more as the command lines I know have always come in handy on some UNIX servers I’ve had to look after and macs also. So I am currently running OpenSUSE 12.2 on a laptop and Ubuntu 12.10 on my PC. I’m not sure how I did it, but while I was ripping bits of software out of Ubuntu, the time and date went missing from the top right hand corner of my display. I searched in Unity for Time and Date and alas it was not there.

Now since it was only the indicator that was missing, it was a simple case of re-installing the indicator again. To do this run the following command in the terminal

sudo apt-get install indicator-datetime

Now after you have installed this you have two options, either log out and then log back in again (bit too Microsoft-like for me) or you can kill off your unity program, which automatically restarts. To do this run the following command:

ps -ef | grep unity-panel-service

As you can see from the screenshot above, it will come back with the PID of the program (number next to the user) and the one you want to kill of is /usr/lib/unity/unity-panel-service. To kill this service off just run the command:

kill <PID you just discovered using ps -ef, which in my example above it 4643>

You will see unity close down, refresh and then the time will appear again in the top right hand corner. Now would be a perfect time (no matter what the time now says on your PC) to have a beer.