SMP and NTPD

[Eric Mader]

Jeff Vian wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-04-12 at 14:40 -1000, Eric Mader wrote:
>> I also noticed the following in /var/log/messages:
>>
>> Apr 11 09:21:19 localhost kernel: warning: many lost ticks.
>> Apr 11 09:21:19 localhost kernel: Your time source seems to be instable 
>> or some driver is hogging interupts
>>
>>
>> I'll bet this has something to do w/ the problem. (:-) Does anybody know 
>> how to figure out what this is about?
>>
>> (I have a vague memory of having seen the same problem w/ the SMP kernel 
>> on a P4 w/ hyperthreading. On this system it was so bad that the whole 
>> system would lock up. My AMD keeps chugging along, more or less.)
>>
> The kernel 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp is ancient! I believe that was the
> kernel FC4 was released with.
> 
> Have you tried updating the system to the latest software to see if the
> problem you describe may have been fixed at some point in the last 7
> months?
> 

Updating to kernel 2.6.16-1.2069_FC4smp seems to have fixed the problem. 
I've been running for over an hour now, and the time seems to be rock-solid:

      remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset 
  jitter
==============================================================================
+64-112-189-11.c 204.152.184.72   2 u   47  128  377  142.229   -3.746 
  1.081
-gumdrop.n-conne 208.245.212.8    3 u  110  128  377  136.707   -7.827 
  8.428
*dsl081-199-165. .GPS.            1 u   54  128  377  142.271   -1.350 
  3.965
+time2.apple.com 17.254.1.71      3 u  117  128  377   76.349   -0.071 
  2.300

Regards,
Eric