Re: Clock Problem?

Unruh <unruh-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Paul J Gans <gans@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

gaedhealic <gaedhealic@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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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.

May I assume that your clock behaves correctly with both Windows
and Ubuntu?

No. He found that also in Ubuntu it is going at double speed. Windows he
thinks is correct.

Yes, I saw that. The problem is that our (all of us) posts are
crossing each other. By the time you see this you probably will
have responded to posts further down the thread.


IF that is the case, the problem is in the Suse 10.2 software,
possibly a module problem or some such.

If your clock does NOT behave with both of those operating
systems, then you have a motherboard problem.

It is that simple.


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...

No. This problem is solved. You have a problem with the
particular 10.2 distribution software.

Let me explain: EVERY operating system picks up the time from
the hardware clock (you call it the bios clock, but that isn't
really right). No operating system can keep time when the
machine is powered down -- except by the hardware clock that
runs even if the machine is off.

True, but that is NOT his problem. His problem is that while the system is
running the system time ( which has nothing to do with the hwclock)
advances twice as fast as it should.

Yes. That is a software problem with the software in the OS.
Since Windows keeps correct time, we can assume that the linux
kernels, for some reason, are not handling things quite right
on his motherboard.

So if the time is correct when you turn on other operating
systems, then the hardware clock is NOT running at double
speed or anything like that.

Correct.


Thus it is a software problem. Now exactly which problem I
can't say since your clock problem seems to be unique.

Not necessarily. It could also be a hardware problem where the harware
timer interrupts are occuring at double rate.

If this were so, Windows would also be off in timekeeping. It
too keeps a software clock.


Did you get your 10.2 distro from Novell? If so the original
distro is likely ok and I don't know what is munged. If
you got it from somewhere else, there *may* be a problem.

It is all very strange. I think that we have complicated
the situation by talking about NTS and things like that before
we understood the problem.

If, and I'm not sure of this, the software clock is gaining at
the rate of one minute per minute, then it is clear that either
there are twice as many ticks as expected or they are counted
double. It is hard to find out without more knowlege of how
the software handles the interrupts. Perhaps there is another
service hanging on the timer interrupt? (That's a wild guess).

We know that there is nothing wrong with 10.2 in any generic way.
So the problem is the interaction of *his* hardware with the OS.
And not a hardware problem in general. Beyond that I can not go.

All I can seriously suggest is to see if there is a bios upgrade
for the motherboard.

--
--- Paul J. Gans
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Time Sync
    ... BIOS clock at boot, and then maintained by counting timer interrupts. ... these that you get the windows clock running at a very bad rate. ... Alex Nichol MS MVP ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: hwclock problem with leapseconds - posix?
    ... An extra second, the leapsecond, added every few years means nothing, ... and deal with the hardware clock. ... that can be adjusted, and the skill and tools to adjust it. ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: Problem with clock interrupt
    ... # hwclockfirst.sh Set system clock to hardware clock, ... echo "$0: System clock was not updated at this ...
    (comp.os.linux.hardware)
  • Re: Clock Problem?
    ... The bios clock, (which is the hardware ... EVERY operating system picks up the time from ... the hardware clock (you call it the bios clock, ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: A7V333: Odd shutdowns, as if no power -- clock/timer problem?
    ... The hardware clock stores the time correctly, ... If I power cycle, ... You could have a bad CMOS battery. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)