Re: Clock Problem?

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Paul J Gans wrote:
gaedhealic <gaedhealic@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ok. When you were looking at the clock using the BIOS you
were looking at the hardware clock.

Yes, O.K., I get that, and there is no way to specify Location when
setting the clock in Bios. The bios clock is <i>expected</i> to be local
time.

Whoa. This isn't right. The bios clock, (which is the hardware
clock) should only be set to local time if you also have windows
on the same machine. Otherwise set it to UTC time.

I have two HD:

First is a WD 40 gig IDE this has Suse 10.2 on it.
Regular Boot Track -- no boot manager.


Second is a 78 gig SATA duel boot
with Ubuntu 6.1 LTS AMD64
and Windoz XP SP2

Only one HD can be selected in CMOS/Bios to boot. If/when I select the
WD 40 gig, that is SuSE and it is not duel boot.

When I select the SATA 78 Gig, that is Duel boot with windows. I do not
expect Windows to last too much longer, and I don't expect Ubunto to be
my permanent OS...

The ONLY reason Windoz is on my machine is I have software I can not
replace as yet. The only reason WinXP in on the 78 gig HD is that is the
HD it was installed onto and activated.

But the time set in the BIOS is the least of my concern.

I am concerned with accurate time.


When you were runnng
Linux you were looking at the software clock the operating
system keeps time with.

Yes... and when setting this software one can set "local" or UTC. If I
set the CMOS/Bios clock to UTC time then set the software time/location
to UTC -- then the software and the Bios are the same time... am I on it
so far?

I don't think so. During the install, the installer asks you to set
the time. And it does give you this choice. But what it does is
set the hardware clock to the value you give it. Then the software
clock is either set to match (if you specified local time) or it
is set with the proper offset so that it reads local time with the
hardware clock on UTC time.


I don't know about that... But, hey, I'ma nube....
It SEEMS that if your Bios is set to local (that does seem to be
expected) then you want your Linux time set to UTC, then the Install
adjusts the clock -- based on your local offset/time zone -- to read UTC
time....

I dono... right now I have the bios (and a spare wrist watch) set to UTC
and the KDE display set to UTC.

This is funny: My telephone-combo-answering machine has a clock, my HP
Office Jet/fax has a clock, my Stereo has a clock, I have an analog
clock (battery) in the kitchen and bathroom (battery) and a 2 spares
(one battery) in my sock drawer. and of course my cell phone has a
clock. I have four watches, one battery, one motion and two (one is a
pocket watch) windups... I'd gladly trade some of the clocks for some
time ;-)


Something is wrong with the software that manages that. I
have no idea what that might be but I'd guess that it is
something with the kernel.

Well, it MAY be the software.... or it MAY be the CPU or the MB...

Yes. I'll agree to that.


If other people are running the same default kernal install which I am,
and they are not having trouble with the clock - then this begins to
smell like hardware... a flaw in the CPU or MB, or both...

Somewhere on the Novell/Suse site there is a kernel repository.
I'd try to download that (it should be an rpm), install it,
and then reboot. You won't be using the new kernel until
you reboot.


I have the latest kernl, i think...
# uname -a
Linux <hostname> 2.6.18.8-0.1-default #1 SMP Fri Mar 2 13:51:59 UTC 2007
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux


Another thought: if you ignore the clock's errors and simply
shut down, wait a few minutes, and then reboot, I wonder what
you see...

Depends...

before using NTP ...
On shutdown the system set the hardware clock. So on shutdown the
hardware clock was the same as the system time - wrong. Then on startup
the system began again at the wrong time.

OK. That part is at least working correctly. It is good to
find what is working correctly because when all of those things
are eliminated, what is left is the problem.

If I booted into Bios and set the clock, then booted Linux, it began at
the right time, then ran ahead...

Ok.

Now, using NTP, on boot the clock is set to the correct time, but again,
it runs fast.

That's a bit strange, but I've never used NTP. It looks as if
on shutdown the time was read by NTP from a time server.

Someone with more NTP experience than me should tell us about that.

agreed.
but it seems that time is set by NTP at bootup -- or when you select and
active NTP server -- then saved to the system on shutdown


If it is a software problem then the software should,
on shutdown, store the current clock into the hardware clock.
Then when you reboot the *hardware* clock should now be off.

If it isn't, then you have an ectoplasmically contaminated
computer and I'd call Ghost Busters.

No, there ain't no "ectoplasmic" clock going on.... At first I thought
it may be a bug in the clock software, but now I'm thinking more like a
bad CPU or MB...

Ok. Have you ever installed another operating system on *this*
hardware? And if so, did the clock run OK.

If the answer is yes, 10.1 was ok or Windows was OK, then
you have a software problem. If not, perhaps you might want
to install an earlier version of linux and see what happens.

This is now the crucial question.

10.1 i386 /seemed/ to be ok for time...

Yes, Windoz kept time correctly. But all that means to me is that Windoz
may not have been affected by a particular hardware problem...

As far as I can tell (I could be wrong on this) but Ubuntu seems to keep
time correctly... and Ubuntu does not seem to be affected by the ACPI
on/off problem either.

But what all that means, I dono...


...and I'd be interested in some software to test my CPU and MB...

I don't know of any other than another operating system.

Ideas?

Not for that, but someone ought to have some.



I will be looking over my collection of disks again....

....have some testing to do....


g


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