[gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Robert Persson]

A week or two back I reset my system clock temporarily to 2001 in order to 
install a package under wine with a time-limited installer, after which I set 
it back again.   Since then I have been getting really weird and annoying 
clock behaviour.

For instance I sometimes find that the kde clock tells me that I am on UTC 
rather than PST.  At other times it tells me that I am on PST, but gives a 
time exactly 8 hours in the future.

Now it is getting even weirder because I find that when I boot up and enter 
kde, the clock shows a time approximately, but not exactly, 10 days in the 
past.  For instance the time now is 18 Nov 2005 10:03 am, but the clock 
thinks it is 8 nov 2005 7:13 am.  Yesterday at the same time it thought it 
was 8 nov 7.xx pm.

Sometimes I am able to correct the time using the kde control panel.  
Sometimes I am not and I have to use the other control panel I find in my K 
menu (which I believe to be the Gnome one, but I'm not sure).

I have enabled ntpd in my default runlevel, and /etc/init.d/ntpd status 
returns "started".  However, when I select "Set date and time automatically" 
in the kde control panel, I get the error "Unable to contact time server: 
http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/north-america", and I get the same error no 
matter which server I select or type in.  The (Gnome?) control panel does 
allow me to select "Synchronize clock with internet servers", but when I do 
so nothing happens, no matter how many servers I select.

How can I get ntpd and/or ntp-client working properly?

This is my current /etc/ntp.conf:

restrict default noquery notrust nomodify
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 3
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
logfile /var/log/ntp.log
server time.nrc.ca
server ntp1.cmc.ec.gc.ca
server ntp2.cmc.ec.gc.ca
server clock.tricity.wsu.edu
server wuarchive.wustl.edu
server clock.psu.edu
server gilbreth.ecn.purdue.edu
server molecule.ecn.purdue.edu
server libra.rice.edu
server ntp.cox.smu.edu

and this is my /var/log/ntp.log:

13 Nov 15:38:34 ntpd[7996]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
13 Nov 15:53:30 ntpd[7996]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
13 Nov 15:54:34 ntpd[7996]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
14 Nov 05:44:27 ntpd[7996]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
 7 Nov 05:47:11 ntpd[9980]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
 7 Nov 05:47:11 ntpd[9980]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
 7 Nov 05:48:17 ntpd[9980]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
 7 Nov 05:56:50 ntpd[9980]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
 7 Nov 05:59:57 ntpd[10925]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
 7 Nov 05:59:57 ntpd[10925]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
 7 Nov 06:01:01 ntpd[10925]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
 7 Nov 06:16:23 ntpd[10925]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
14 Nov 20:29:38 ntpd[24699]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
16 Nov 21:45:26 ntpd[9972]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
16 Nov 21:45:26 ntpd[10536]: parent died before we finished, exiting
17 Nov 20:35:43 ntpd[9948]: ntpd exiting on signal 15

Note that there is no entry in the log for today (18 nov) even though I have 
attempted today (18 nov according to both me and the computer) to disable and 
reenable synchronisation through the (Gnome?) control panel.

Many thanks
Robert
-- 
Robert Persson

"Don't use nuclear weapons to troubleshoot faults."
(US Air Force Instruction 91-111, 1 Oct 1997)

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Arturo 'Buanzo' Busleiman]

Another solution if you are having ntpd problems, is to use this command 
from a crontab:

ntpdate -b time.nist.gov

stop ntpd before that

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005, Robert Persson wrote:

> A week or two back I reset my system clock temporarily to 2001 in order to
> install a package under wine with a time-limited installer, after which I set
> it back again.   Since then I have been getting really weird and annoying
> clock behaviour.
>
> For instance I sometimes find that the kde clock tells me that I am on UTC
> rather than PST.  At other times it tells me that I am on PST, but gives a
> time exactly 8 hours in the future.
>
> Now it is getting even weirder because I find that when I boot up and enter
> kde, the clock shows a time approximately, but not exactly, 10 days in the
> past.  For instance the time now is 18 Nov 2005 10:03 am, but the clock
> thinks it is 8 nov 2005 7:13 am.  Yesterday at the same time it thought it
> was 8 nov 7.xx pm.
>
> Sometimes I am able to correct the time using the kde control panel.
> Sometimes I am not and I have to use the other control panel I find in my K
> menu (which I believe to be the Gnome one, but I'm not sure).
>
> I have enabled ntpd in my default runlevel, and /etc/init.d/ntpd status
> returns "started".  However, when I select "Set date and time automatically"
> in the kde control panel, I get the error "Unable to contact time server:
> http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/north-america", and I get the same error no
> matter which server I select or type in.  The (Gnome?) control panel does
> allow me to select "Synchronize clock with internet servers", but when I do
> so nothing happens, no matter how many servers I select.
>
> How can I get ntpd and/or ntp-client working properly?
>
> This is my current /etc/ntp.conf:
>
> restrict default noquery notrust nomodify
> restrict 127.0.0.1
> restrict 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0
> fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 3
> driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
> logfile /var/log/ntp.log
> server time.nrc.ca
> server ntp1.cmc.ec.gc.ca
> server ntp2.cmc.ec.gc.ca
> server clock.tricity.wsu.edu
> server wuarchive.wustl.edu
> server clock.psu.edu
> server gilbreth.ecn.purdue.edu
> server molecule.ecn.purdue.edu
> server libra.rice.edu
> server ntp.cox.smu.edu
>
> and this is my /var/log/ntp.log:
>
> 13 Nov 15:38:34 ntpd[7996]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
> 13 Nov 15:53:30 ntpd[7996]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
> 13 Nov 15:54:34 ntpd[7996]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
> 14 Nov 05:44:27 ntpd[7996]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
> 7 Nov 05:47:11 ntpd[9980]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
> 7 Nov 05:47:11 ntpd[9980]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
> 7 Nov 05:48:17 ntpd[9980]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
> 7 Nov 05:56:50 ntpd[9980]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
> 7 Nov 05:59:57 ntpd[10925]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 5
> 7 Nov 05:59:57 ntpd[10925]: kernel time sync disabled 0041
> 7 Nov 06:01:01 ntpd[10925]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
> 7 Nov 06:16:23 ntpd[10925]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
> 14 Nov 20:29:38 ntpd[24699]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
> 16 Nov 21:45:26 ntpd[9972]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
> 16 Nov 21:45:26 ntpd[10536]: parent died before we finished, exiting
> 17 Nov 20:35:43 ntpd[9948]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
>
> Note that there is no entry in the log for today (18 nov) even though I have
> attempted today (18 nov according to both me and the computer) to disable and
> reenable synchronisation through the (Gnome?) control panel.
>
> Many thanks
> Robert
> -- 
> Robert Persson
>
> "Don't use nuclear weapons to troubleshoot faults."
> (US Air Force Instruction 91-111, 1 Oct 1997)
>
> -- 
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Benno Schulenberg]

Robert Persson wrote:
> For instance I sometimes find that the kde clock tells me that I
> am on UTC rather than PST.  At other times it tells me that I am
> on PST, but gives a time exactly 8 hours in the future.
>
> Now it is getting even weirder because I find that when I boot up
> and enter kde, the clock shows a time approximately, but not
> exactly, 10 days in the past.

Your hardware clock is supposed to be at UTC?
Check with 'grep CLOCK= /etc/conf.d/clock'.

Your time zone is correctly set?
Check with 'ls -l /etc/localtime'.

If those are okay, do:

  rm /etc/adjtime
  hwclock --set --utc --date="2005-11-18 21:34"   # example time
  hwclock --hctosys

If your hardware clock must be at local time, then replace --utc 
with --localtime.

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Richard Fish]

On 11/18/05, Benno Schulenberg <benno.schulenberg@gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert Persson wrote:
> > For instance I sometimes find that the kde clock tells me that I
> > am on UTC rather than PST.  At other times it tells me that I am
> > on PST, but gives a time exactly 8 hours in the future.
> >
> > Now it is getting even weirder because I find that when I boot up
> > and enter kde, the clock shows a time approximately, but not
> > exactly, 10 days in the past.
>
> Your hardware clock is supposed to be at UTC?
> Check with 'grep CLOCK= /etc/conf.d/clock'.
>
> Your time zone is correctly set?
> Check with 'ls -l /etc/localtime'.
>
> If those are okay, do:
>
>   rm /etc/adjtime
>   hwclock --set --utc --date="2005-11-18 21:34"   # example time
>   hwclock --hctosys
>
> If your hardware clock must be at local time, then replace --utc
> with --localtime.
>
> Benno
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

Also, the KDE clock has a (IMO a very annoying) "feature" that will
change the timezone it displays in response to the scroll wheel.  So
if it ever shows a different time than the "date" command, or jumps to
a different timezone, this may be the reason.  You can configure the
timezones that can be displayed by right-clicking on the clock, Show
Timezone -> Configure Timezones.

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[John J. Foster]

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On Fri, Nov 18, 2005 at 03:57:27PM -0700, Richard Fish wrote:
> Also, the KDE clock has a (IMO a very annoying) "feature" that will
> change the timezone it displays in response to the scroll wheel.  So

I never knew of that feature till you just mentioned it. I think
that's pretty cool!

John
-- 
If voting could change anything,
it would be illegal

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Charles Trois]

Benno Schulenberg a écrit :
> 
> Your hardware clock is supposed to be at UTC?
> Check with 'grep CLOCK= /etc/conf.d/clock'.
> 
> Your time zone is correctly set?
> Check with 'ls -l /etc/localtime'.
> 
> If those are okay, do:
> 
>   rm /etc/adjtime
>   hwclock --set --utc --date="2005-11-18 21:34"   # example time
>   hwclock --hctosys
> 
> If your hardware clock must be at local time, then replace --utc 
> with --localtime.
> 
I too have a clock problem (the time returned by "date" being one hour 
fast), and I have been fiddling with "hwclock" without finding the right 
way. When I saw the above post, I thought that it gave me the answer, 
and tried to apply it, but had no success (I used both --utc and 
--localtime).

The legal time, here in France and at this (winter) period, is GMT + 1, 
as shown correctly by the clock of my iMac, but "date" keeps returning 
GMT + 2.

Can anyone figure out the solution?

Charles

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Stephen Micheals]

i am having that same problem also.

On 11/21/05, Charles Trois <charles.trois@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Benno Schulenberg a écrit :
> I too have a clock problem (the time returned by "date" being one hour
> fast), and I have been fiddling with "hwclock" without finding the right
> way. When I saw the above post, I thought that it gave me the answer,
> and tried to apply it, but had no success (I used both --utc and
> --localtime).
>
> The legal time, here in France and at this (winter) period, is GMT + 1,
> as shown correctly by the clock of my iMac, but "date" keeps returning
> GMT + 2.
>
> Can anyone figure out the solution?
>
> Charles

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Richard Fish]

On 11/21/05, Charles Trois <charles.trois@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> I too have a clock problem (the time returned by "date" being one hour
> fast), and I have been fiddling with "hwclock" without finding the right
> way. When I saw the above post, I thought that it gave me the answer,
> and tried to apply it, but had no success (I used both --utc and
> --localtime).
>
> The legal time, here in France and at this (winter) period, is GMT + 1,
> as shown correctly by the clock of my iMac, but "date" keeps returning
> GMT + 2.

Are you syncing time with an external time server? (run rc-update -s | grep ntp)

What timezone does /etc/localtime point to? (it should be a symbolic
link pointing to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris)

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Benno Schulenberg]

Charles Trois wrote:
> The legal time, here in France and at this (winter) period, is
> GMT + 1, as shown correctly by the clock of my iMac, but "date"
> keeps returning GMT + 2.

Sounds like your harware clock is running at local time.  What does 
'hwclock --show --debug' say?  Look for the line saying "Time read 
from Hardware Clock:".

If the hardware clock is really set at UTC, do you maybe have TZ 
set?  'echo $TZ'.  If it is, then unset it: 'unset TZ', and then 
see if date and hwclock operate correctly.  And also check that the 
symlink /etc/localtime points at the correct zone.

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Charles Trois]

Benno Schulenberg a écrit :
> Charles Trois wrote:
> 
>>The legal time, here in France and at this (winter) period, is
>>GMT + 1, as shown correctly by the clock of my iMac, but "date"
>>keeps returning GMT + 2.
> 
> 
> Sounds like your harware clock is running at local time.  What does 
> 'hwclock --show --debug' say?  Look for the line saying "Time read 
> from Hardware Clock:".
> 
> If the hardware clock is really set at UTC, do you maybe have TZ 
> set?  'echo $TZ'.  If it is, then unset it: 'unset TZ', and then 
> see if date and hwclock operate correctly.  And also check that the 
> symlink /etc/localtime points at the correct zone.
> 
> Benno

Here are the results:

~ # hwclock --show --debug
hwclock from util-linux-2.12i
Using /dev/rtc interface to clock.
...
Hardware clock is on local time
Assuming hardware clock is kept in local time.
Waiting for clock tick...
...
Time read from Hardware Clock: 2005/11/23 19:04:14
Hw clock time : 2005/11/23 19:04:14 = 1132769054 seconds since 1969
Wed Nov 23 19:04:14 2005  -0.188934 seconds


  ~ # ls -l /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 32 Nov 22 20:39 /etc/localtime -> 
/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris

and in /etc/conf.d/clock:

CLOCK="local"

echo $TZ returns nothing, so TZ is presumably not set.

All that seems correct to me, and yet the time returned by "date" is 
still one hour fast.

What else can I check?

Charles



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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Benno Schulenberg]

Charles Trois wrote:
>   ~ # ls -l /etc/localtime
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 32 Nov 22 20:39 /etc/localtime ->
> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris
>
> and in /etc/conf.d/clock:
>
> CLOCK="local"

Did you maybe change this last one after your last reboot?  Because 
then the system time won't have changed accordingly.  Do a 'hwclock 
-hctosys' to set the system time from the hardware clock.

> What else can I check?

Is the clock initscript run?  Check with 'rc-update -s'.  If it is, 
try removing it from the startup sequence, see if that solves it.

Is date maybe aliased?  Check with 'type date'.

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[stuart]

On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 11:48:23PM +0100, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> Charles Trois wrote:
> >   ~ # ls -l /etc/localtime
> > lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 32 Nov 22 20:39 /etc/localtime ->
> > /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris
> >
> > and in /etc/conf.d/clock:
> >
> > CLOCK="local"
> 
> Did you maybe change this last one after your last reboot?  Because 
> then the system time won't have changed accordingly.  Do a 'hwclock 
> -hctosys' to set the system time from the hardware clock.
> 
> > What else can I check?
> 
> Is the clock initscript run?  Check with 'rc-update -s'.  If it is, 
> try removing it from the startup sequence, see if that solves it.
> 
> Is date maybe aliased?  Check with 'type date'.
> 
> Benno
> -- 
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
Hi

Not ideal but as a workaround should your investigation not go well you
could install an NTP type client. I would recommenf "chronyd" as a
simple way of doing this, worked a treat when I had a similar issue a
few monthes ago.

stu 
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Re: [gentoo-user] system clock keeps getting reset to weird times

[Robert Persson]

On November 18, 2005 02:14 pm Benno Schulenberg was like:
> Your time zone is correctly set?
> Check with 'ls -l /etc/localtime'.

I think the problem was a corrupt /etc/localtime.

When I set up the system I made /etc/localtime a symlink, but SOMETHING seemed 
to have changed that and replaced it with a copy of (what I presume to have 
been) the file the symlink should have been pointing to. Unfortunately it 
must have been a corrupt copy. Deleting this file and reinserting the symlink 
seems to have made the problem go away.

I think the guilty SOMETHING was most likely the kde date and time setting 
utility.

Thanks once again to everybody for their help.

Robert
-- 
Robert Persson

"Don't use nuclear weapons to troubleshoot faults."
(US Air Force Instruction 91-111, 1 Oct 1997)

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