Severe clock problems, setting by hand works, otherwise no.

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

When I first installed this gentoo machine, my clock was fine, no problems in the boot process, everything was fine.

The, all the sudden on one random boot, the "clock" script stopped working. As in, I had to ctrl+c it to continue booting. What is so odd about this that I had been working entirely in the console, and the only thing I had been doing the last 4 reboots or so, was recompiling my kernel and trying different configurations.

Any attempt to set the clock through KDE will freeze the clock applet, requiring a 'kill -9'. Much the same as the clock init script. However, if I use the "date" command on console, I can set the time without a problem. I know that the issue is in software because it works fine in windows XP, and the "date" command works fine as well. I have configured it properly, /etc/localtime is symlinked to EST which is my time zone, as per the install guide.

I attempted to "rc-update del clock default", it said the script was removed, but it still continued to run at bootup(possible bug?). Then, I completely removed the clock script from the init.d/ directory, but that causes more problems because metalog and dcron depend on it(Why, I don't know, because the system SHOULD be able to read the time from the bios without needing a clock script. I think that perhaps a reconfiguration of the init scripts could allow dcron and metalog to function without the clock script). However, I don't really know all that much, so I am unsure of how to fix it

I am at a loss for what I could have possibly done wrong, and I come to you begging for a solution. It has gotten to be quite the problem and I am sick of having to manually set my clock properly every time I need to reboot.

EDIT: god I wish gentoo was a commercial entity, I would LOVE to be able to purchase it and get phone tech support for it, I would not mind paying for it, even a monthly fee.
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dma · Posted: Sun May 25, 2003 10:00 pm Post subject:

/etc/init.d/clock is just a little script that gets the CMOS clock info and puts it in the SYSTEM clock when it starts and doing the reverse when it stops.

You might want to open up /etc/init.d/clock in a text editor and manually do some of the stuff.

Also, try deleting /etc/adjtime.

try running:

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

tried it....

hwclock freezes as well.

The only time util that doesn't freeze is the date command.
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aaronjb

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

Yes I did, but I did not run any of the kernels that I compiled until a while after this started happening......I was still running on the kernel that came with the install cd(thats another story) and it just started on a random bootup, nothing was changed.
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dma · Posted: Mon May 26, 2003 2:24 am Post subject:

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

ok here's mine:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Moved from Installing Gentoo.
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revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

Sorry to bump this topic, but I am on the verge of throwing my system out the window; I've been trying for almost two weeks now to fix my clock and I have no idea what to do, any help will be greatly appreciated.
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zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

Try replacing the internal battery.

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

It isn't a hardware issue.

The clock works fine under XP(and under slackware).

Besides, if the battery was dead, I would know it because I would lose my cmos values every reboot.
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zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

How about the quartz crystals?

It sounds like the internal hardware clock isn't ticking anymore, which could mean that the quartz crystals are not working, either because they themselves are broken or that the electric current is not correct.

Replace the electrical clock with a clockwork one and see what happens...

But then again, if it works everywhere else, it must be the fault of your kernel... Try including RTC support. That would be under Character devices.

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

CONFIG_RTC=y right?

It's set.

I have a hard time believing that its the crystal in the clock that is at fault, but in the event that it is, how do I get my clock script to work again?

I would imagine that I could just have it sync on boot with time.nist.gov or something, but I have no clue how to get the clock init script to work with that.
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zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

revmoo · n00b Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 32

hmm worth a shot...

Anyway, I understand how to SYNC my time, but that won't do a thing to fix the clock script that breaks on bootup. And since other init scripts(dcron, metalog) depend on the clock script, I will have to somehow modify it to not use my system's clock I would assume.....
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toskala · Posted: Fri May 30, 2003 3:35 pm Post subject:

well, i am experiencing exactly the same problems on my system. it works with slackware but it doesnt work with gentoo. but, interesting thing about this whole thing is, that it started drifting after some emerge -u world, so what i assume is, that we are having some severe problem in some package.

before some people start pointing my nose on the gadzillions of ntp/cronjob/ntpdate threads i need to say: i have read them all, but none of them solved my problem. currently i have ntpd installed and it runs (should run) by default. as i am having a perm. internet connection updating shouldn't be a problem but for some reason i still have major clock drift. when i do a /etc/init.d/ntpd restart the script spits out an error message stating ntpd isnt running but at least starts ntpd and sets the clock, well, the clock is set correctly then but drifting like hell. i am having about 5 hours clock drift per day... what sucks.

currently i ended up with setting a stupid cronjob that does a ntpdate every 20 minutes, but this isnt really sattisfying.

if anyone knows an answer, please post

cheers,
toskala
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zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

This will only mask the problem. Find a permanant solution.

Jura.nl · n00b Joined: 31 May 2003 Posts: 6

I've got that same problem. I'm running Gentoo and W2K on 1 machine here, and the clock is totaly screwed since gentoo got installed.

My thought is using the hardware clock in both OS's. I want to sync system to hardware on startup and not the other way around. (is this even possible) I set the clock to "local", but this was not the solution.

Any ideas??

Thanx
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robmoss · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2003 1:48 pm Post subject:

Just a thought... have you tried re-emerging util-linux by any chance?

Also, if that doesn't work, you could attempt to use util-linux-2.11z-r4 instead; do a ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge util-linux.

The only possible thing I can think of is that hwclock has someone been broken. I think you've tried everything else!

thegiorgio · n00b Joined: 16 Apr 2003 Posts: 11

I took the --adjust off in /etc/init.d/clock and I have no longer clock problems. This --adjust setting is there to handle the "normal" drift that the CMOS clock produce because it is not 100% accurate but reading at the man page, this "normal drift" is enormous, far greater than any wrist clock that I ever used.

I think it is there because of old CMOS clock but nowadays, CMOS Clock are far more accurate than what is said in the man page.

So I took it off and wonderfully, I have no drift , even without ntp !
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drakk · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 1

I'm on a laptop, my clock is working but only with <acpi=off> otherwise I get a lockup at boot when clock tries to sync with the hardware......any thoughts?