[gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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Hello Everyone,

I am facing a very annoying problem with my system clock. Here is what is 
happening.

I manually set correct time using sites like worldtimezone.com. Then, I 
shutdown the system and boot after a few hours. What I see is that Gentoo 
sets the system time to the same one at which I halted it. For example if I 
shutdown 4 hours ago at 14:00 hrs and boot at 18:00 hrs, it will still set 
the time to 14:00 hrs instead of the correct time.

The CMOS battery is fine. I can say this because if I enter the BIOS (after 4 
hours reboot) it shows the correct time. I start a Live CD, it shows the 
correct time as well, but when I start Gentoo it sets the wrong system time 
or as mentioned in example: "4 hours back". It writes the time it was 
shutdown on, over the BIOS Clock instead of reading from it. How can I solve 
it? How can I force Gentoo to read from the BIOS Clock at the time of boot, 
instead of writing it. If it helps, here is my /etc/conf.d/clock.

---------------------------------
# /etc/conf.d/clock
CLOCK="local"
CLOCK_OPTS=""
CLOCK_SYSTOHC="no" (have tried both yes and no)
SRM="no"
ARC="no"
---------------------------------

I am not using ntp or any other such softwares because I don't have an all 
time working Internet Connection.

I would be greatful if someone could help me solve this weird problem.

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Michael A. Smith]

Abhay Kedia wrote:
> I manually set correct time using sites like worldtimezone.com. Then, I 
> shutdown the system and boot after a few hours. What I see is that Gentoo 
> sets the system time to the same one at which I halted it. For example if I 
> shutdown 4 hours ago at 14:00 hrs and boot at 18:00 hrs, it will still set 
> the time to 14:00 hrs instead of the correct time.
<snip>
> here is my /etc/conf.d/clock.
> 
> ---------------------------------
> # /etc/conf.d/clock
> CLOCK="local"
> CLOCK_OPTS=""
> CLOCK_SYSTOHC="no" (have tried both yes and no)
> SRM="no"
> ARC="no"
> ---------------------------------
> 
> I am not using ntp or any other such softwares

Hmm, according to the initscript, /etc/init.d/clock isn't supposed to 
care about the CLOCK_SYSTOHC option until stop(). But it is supposed 
to set the *system* clock to the hardware clock, so that if the 
hardware clock is right at boot time, so should be the system clock.

I'm not sure, but I suspect that somehow the clock device that 
/sbin/hwclock is supposed to be talking to is actually static for 
some reason, and doesn't match your BIOS clock.

That deserves looking into: I'd start with the kernel config. Maybe 
something about /dev/rtc?

But the quick fix is probably rc-update del clock. I don't know if 
that's a Bad Thing To Do (TM), but nobody screamed when I asked about 
it in #gentoo.

Have a great day,
Mike
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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On Friday 27 January 2006 21:40, Michael A. Smith wrote:
>
> That deserves looking into: I'd start with the kernel config. Maybe
> something about /dev/rtc?
>
Here are the outputs

-------------------------------------------
genbox abhay # ls -l /dev/rtc
ls: /dev/rtc: No such file or directory

genbox abhay # grep RTC /usr/src/linux/.config
# CONFIG_RTC is not set
# CONFIG_GEN_RTC is not set
CONFIG_HPET_RTC_IRQ=y
# CONFIG_SENSORS_RTC8564 is not set
# CONFIG_RTC_X1205_I2C is not set
-------------------------------------------

I tried setting CONFIG_RTC to "y" but that didn't help either.

>
>But the quick fix is probably rc-update del clock.
>
I am apprehensive towards doing that. It is a boot time service. How smart 
would it be to remove it from there. If I try that, would I break my system 
instantaneously?

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Uwe Thiem]

On 27 January 2006 18:10, Michael A. Smith wrote:
> Abhay Kedia wrote:
> > I manually set correct time using sites like worldtimezone.com. Then, I
> > shutdown the system and boot after a few hours. What I see is that Gentoo
> > sets the system time to the same one at which I halted it. For example if
> > I shutdown 4 hours ago at 14:00 hrs and boot at 18:00 hrs, it will still
> > set the time to 14:00 hrs instead of the correct time.
>
> <snip>
>
> > here is my /etc/conf.d/clock.
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > # /etc/conf.d/clock
> > CLOCK="local"
> > CLOCK_OPTS=""
> > CLOCK_SYSTOHC="no" (have tried both yes and no)
> > SRM="no"
> > ARC="no"
> > ---------------------------------
> >
> > I am not using ntp or any other such softwares
>
> Hmm, according to the initscript, /etc/init.d/clock isn't supposed to
> care about the CLOCK_SYSTOHC option until stop(). But it is supposed
> to set the *system* clock to the hardware clock, so that if the
> hardware clock is right at boot time, so should be the system clock.
>
> I'm not sure, but I suspect that somehow the clock device that
> /sbin/hwclock is supposed to be talking to is actually static for
> some reason, and doesn't match your BIOS clock.

The device hwclock connects to *is* the BIOS clock.

Uwe

-- 
Unix is sexy:
who | grep -i blonde | date
cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger
mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount
sleep
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Michael A. Smith]

Uwe Thiem wrote:
> The device hwclock connects to *is* the BIOS clock.
> 
> Uwe

Let me rephrase. A physical device has to have a software 
representation for software to "connect" to it. I'm trying to suggest 
that something is wrong with that interface. Clearly Abhay's BIOS 
clock doesn't jive with what the system *thinks* the hardware clock 
says. /etc/init.d/clock also doesn't break or give an error when he 
runs it (I guess). So that leaves that there is some interface giving 
a syntactically-correct WRONG ANSWER as to the time, at boot time.

- Mike
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gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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On Friday 27 January 2006 21:40, Michael A. Smith wrote:
>
> But the quick fix is probably rc-update del clock. I don't know if
> that's a Bad Thing To Do (TM), but nobody screamed when I asked about
> it in #gentoo.
>
Though the problem is solved now but it is still worth mentioning that 
removing clock from boot is not possible until i remove bootmisc, syslog-ng 
and vixie-cron as well.

Thanks for you time :-)
-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Uwe Thiem]

On 27 January 2006 17:28, Abhay Kedia wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I am facing a very annoying problem with my system clock. Here is what is
> happening.
>
> I manually set correct time using sites like worldtimezone.com. Then, I
> shutdown the system and boot after a few hours. What I see is that Gentoo
> sets the system time to the same one at which I halted it. For example if I
> shutdown 4 hours ago at 14:00 hrs and boot at 18:00 hrs, it will still set
> the time to 14:00 hrs instead of the correct time.
>
> The CMOS battery is fine. I can say this because if I enter the BIOS (after
> 4 hours reboot) it shows the correct time. I start a Live CD, it shows the
> correct time as well, but when I start Gentoo it sets the wrong system time
> or as mentioned in example: "4 hours back". It writes the time it was
> shutdown on, over the BIOS Clock instead of reading from it. How can I
> solve it? How can I force Gentoo to read from the BIOS Clock at the time of
> boot, instead of writing it. If it helps, here is my /etc/conf.d/clock.
>
> ---------------------------------
> # /etc/conf.d/clock
> CLOCK="local"
> CLOCK_OPTS=""
> CLOCK_SYSTOHC="no" (have tried both yes and no)
> SRM="no"
> ARC="no"
> ---------------------------------

Your system has two different clocks, the system clock which is software and 
the hardware clock which is, well, hardware. After adjusting your system 
clock with "date" try this: "hwclock -w. Does that solve the problem?

If so, you are set.

If not so, what is your timezone (in real life)? And what is the timezone in 
your gentoo setup set to? That is, what is /etc/localtime pointing to? Do 
they match?

Is TZ set in your environment? If so, unset it and let /etc/localtime do the 
job.

>
> I am not using ntp or any other such softwares because I don't have an all
> time working Internet Connection.

Once your clocks are sorted out, you can still use ntpdate to synchronise your 
system clock with a time server whenever you go online.

Uwe

-- 
Unix is sexy:
who | grep -i blonde | date
cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger
mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount
sleep
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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>
> Is TZ set in your environment? If so, unset it and let /etc/localtime do
> the job.
>
How can I know what is the TZ in my environment? Just curious.
Thanks for the reply

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Uwe Thiem]

On 28 January 2006 06:14, Abhay Kedia wrote:
> > Is TZ set in your environment? If so, unset it and let /etc/localtime do
> > the job.
>
> How can I know what is the TZ in my environment? Just curious.

"env | grep TZ"

Uwe

-- 
Unix is sexy:
who | grep -i blonde | date
cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger
mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount
sleep
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Benno Schulenberg]

Abhay Kedia wrote:
> I manually set correct time using sites like worldtimezone.com.

How?  What commands do you give?

> Then, I shutdown the system and boot after a few hours. What I
> see is that Gentoo sets the system time to the same one at which
> I halted it. For example if I shutdown 4 hours ago at 14:00 hrs
> and boot at 18:00 hrs, it will still set the time to 14:00 hrs
> instead of the correct time.

Try running 'hwclock --show --debug', and run it again a bunch of 
seconds later.  Is the hardware clock ticking?

Here's a sample output:

# hwclock --show --debug
hwclock from util-linux-2.12r
hwclock: Open of /dev/rtc failed, errno=2: No such file or 
directory.
Using direct I/O instructions to ISA clock.
Last drift adjustment done at 1138395601 seconds after 1969
Last calibration done at 1138395601 seconds after 1969
Hardware clock is on UTC time
Assuming hardware clock is kept in UTC time.
Waiting for clock tick...
...got clock tick
Time read from Hardware Clock: 2006/01/27 21:04:32
Hw clock time : 2006/01/27 21:04:32 = 1138395872 seconds since 1969
Fri Jan 27 22:04:32 2006  -0.579761 seconds

If it is ticking , then set the hardware clock to the correct time 
with 'hwclock --set --date=<thistime>', then throw away the 
/etc/adjtime file.  Throw it away, as it might be the adjusting 
feature that thinks your clock is drifting a full hour per hour 
(that is: ticks away two hours in one).

> # /etc/conf.d/clock
> CLOCK="local"

Do you need the "local" time thing?  If Linux is the only OS on your 
box it's easier to use UTC.

Your time zone is set correctly?  Where is /etc/localtime linking 
to?

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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On Saturday 28 January 2006 02:55, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
>
> If it is ticking , then set the hardware clock to the correct time
> with 'hwclock --set --date=<thistime>', then throw away the
> /etc/adjtime file.  Throw it away, as it might be the adjusting
> feature that thinks your clock is drifting a full hour per hour
> (that is: ticks away two hours in one).
>
That was it!!! That was the file causing all the pain. I moved it away and now 
there are no problems. Any ideas why it was doing it. The file is obviously 
there for some reason but it was not functioning properly. It must be 
something that I messed up. How can I find out?

>
> Do you need the "local" time thing?  If Linux is the only OS on your 
> box it's easier to use UTC.
>
Yes I boot multiple OS so I need "local"

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Benno Schulenberg]

Abhay Kedia wrote:
> On Saturday 28 January 2006 02:55, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> > the /etc/adjtime file.  Throw it away, as it might be the
> > adjusting feature that thinks your clock is drifting a full
> > hour per hour (that is: ticks away two hours in one).
>
> That was it!!! That was the file causing all the pain. I moved it
> away and now there are no problems. Any ideas why it was doing
> it.

A possibility is that you've set the hwclock twice, first with a 
wrong time, then say ten minutes later you realize your watch is 
five minutes fast, and you set the clock again, with the correct 
time.  Now the adjust feature thinks your CMOS clock is ticking 
away ten minutes in just five minutes, and every time you boot your 
computer it will adjust the CMOS clock for this drift and then read 
it to set the system time.

This drift correction feature is useful, but one should be aware of 
it when setting the hardware clock manually: remove the /etc/adjtime 
file after 'hwclock --set' has been used with a wrong time.

> The file is obviously there for some reason

See man hwclock, the section on "The Adjust Function".

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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On Saturday 28 January 2006 20:38, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
>
> See man hwclock, the section on "The Adjust Function".
>
Thanks for the explanation and the tip. It certainly makes sense now :-)

Also, should I enable RTC in my kernel? I disabled it recently when I was 
trying to get to the root of this problem. I am also using HPET in my kernel. 
Can I use both these features? Do they clash with each other?

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Benno Schulenberg]

Abhay Kedia wrote:
> Also, should I enable RTC in my kernel?

As seen from the debug output, hwclock works fine without it.  But 
maybe some other programs have some use for it, I don't know, here 
it is off.

> I am also using HPET in my kernel. Can I use both these features? 
> Do they clash with each other?

If they would clash, then it shouldn't be possible to select them 
both.  But do you use HPET?  If not, then I would disable it.

Benno
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Re: [gentoo-user] Wrong time on reboot. Not a CMOS battery problem.

[Abhay Kedia]

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>
> with 'hwclock --set --date=<thistime>', then throw away the
> /etc/adjtime file.  Throw it away, as it might be the adjusting
> feature that thinks your clock is drifting a full hour per hour
> (that is: ticks away two hours in one).
>
Stupid me!!! Totally forgot to do the most important thing i.e. to thank you 
for the help. Thanks a lot for that great tip :-)

-- 
Regards,
Abhay

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