Geolocation not showing exact location

General Help
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Hi, im struggling with location service. when i check on gmaps it shows 14km away from my real location is. ive been trying beaconDB service, turning on static source or even forcing coordinate via gsettings with no result. very grateful if theres any solution to this!

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Hi and welcome.

This is down to Mozilla having sunset their geolocation service in 2024. Brave A.I. search provides a possible work around. (Zorin 18 is a fork of Ubuntu 24.04):

" Geoclue service failures are a common cause of geolocation inaccuracies in Ubuntu 24.04, particularly when the system lacks GPS or Wi-Fi. The root issue stems from Mozilla’s sunsetting of its open location services (MLS), which previously provided free geolocation data via Wi-Fi and cell tower triangulation. Since July 2024, requests to Mozilla’s API return a 404 error, leaving systems without GPS reliant on inaccurate IP-based geolocation or no data at all.

Manual geolocation configuration is a reliable workaround for desktop systems without GPS or Wi-Fi. You can set a fixed location by editing the Geoclue configuration:

  1. Enable the static source in /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf :
[static-source]
enable=true
  1. Create or edit /etc/geolocation with your coordinates (use decimal format):
# Latitude (in decimal)
41.33648
# Longitude (in decimal)
2.11697
# Elevation (in meters)
14
# Accuracy radius (in meters)
200
  1. Restart the Geoclue service:
sudo systemctl restart geoclue.service

This method ensures consistent location data for GNOME apps like Maps, Weather, and Night Light, and improves browser geolocation accuracy.

Alternative: Use Google Location Services
If you have a Google Cloud API key, you can configure Geoclue to use Google’s paid geolocation service by uncommenting and updating the url line in /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf :

url=https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=YOUR_API_KEY

Note: This requires compliance with Google’s Terms of Service and may incur costs.

Browser-specific fixes :

  • Ensure geo.enabled is true in Firefox’s about:config .
  • For Snap browsers (e.g., Firefox Snap), ensure geoclue is active and properly configured.
  • Test location with tools like geoclue-2.0/demos/where-am-i after ensuring the agent is running.

Final note : If your system is on a static IP or behind a restrictive ISP, IP-based geolocation will remain inaccurate. Manual configuration is the most reliable solution for stationary desktops.

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."

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thanks @swarfendor437 for answering

I attempted to configure the fixed location again. Although Google Maps still shows mismatched coordinates, I've realized now the Weather app is displaying the right location. It’s progress for me! Thank you.

1 Like
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Just to add I could not get my city at all in gnome-weather in Zorin 18. No such issue with KDE Plasma weather widget. You can install Plasma to Zorin 18 which now offers the most stable version of Plasma, 5.27.x. To give you an idea take a look at this video I made of a different OS with same version of Plasma:

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