F8 & F9: Date & Time

[Todd Denniston]

Daniel B. Thurman wrote, On 08/04/2008 07:05 PM:
> Todd Denniston wrote:
>>
>> Daniel B. Thurman wrote, On 08/04/2008 03:20 PM:
>> > Todd Denniston wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Daniel B. Thurman wrote, On 08/01/2008 09:28 PM:
>> >> > Yes, ntp is running and is properly, I believe.  It snaps in
>> >> > once I get the time setting close enough.  Somehow time
>> >> > is off anywhere from 2-8 hours in the past or in the future
>> >> > after a reboot.
>> >>
>> >> A) are you dual booting with windows or any other OS/distribution 
>> >>
>> > Yes, w2kPro, XP, Vista, f8, and f9
>>
<SNIP>
> See below for addition to F9.  It is interesting!  F8:Local v.s. F9: UTC
> I wonder why this changed during installation of F9.

If it was not an upgrade, then it is a check box during installation you have 
to worry about.  I suspect that during install you forgot about it. :)

>>
>>
>> >>
>> >> B) what are the contents of /etc/adjtime and /etc/sysconfig/clock?
>> >>     {repeat this question for each instance of Fedora|Unix installed
>> >> on the
>> >> machine.}
>> >>
>>
> F9: /etc/adjtime:
> ============
> 0.071197 1217706790 0.000000
> 1217706790
> UTC

To work with MS, the last line of /etc/adjtime is REQUIRED to be LOCAL

At this point I suggest:
0)   set the F8 and F9 ntpd conf files (/etc/ntpd and /etc/sysconfig/ntpd) 
back to the settings they originally had. [you do use version control on your 
config files right? man ci; man co]
0.1) ci -l -t-new -m"back to orig" /etc/ntpd \
	/etc/sysconfig/ntpd
0.2) remove ntpd from confusing issues on both F8 and F9 issue:
chkconfig ntpd off
i)   Change the F9 /etc/adjtime to LOCAL
ii)  reboot to MS (XP),
iii) sync time
iv)  reboot to f8
v)   verify time is right [ntpdate -d] (do not change time if it is not right)
vi)  reboot to f9
vii) verify time is right [ntpdate -d] (or at least is off by the same amount 
as f8 +-a minute)
Note: if f8 & f9 now agree on the same time (based on TOY clock) but are 
different than XP, then the timezone in use by XP has different contents from 
"America/Los Angeles".

viii) turn ntpd back on, on both F8 and F9 issue:
chkconfig ntpd on
ix)   reboot to MS (XP),
x) sync time
xi)  reboot to f8
xii)   verify time is right [ntpq -p]
xiii)  reboot to f9
xiv) verify time is right [ntpq -p]

> 
> F9: /etc/sysconfig/clock:
> ==================
> # The ZONE parameter is only evaluated by system-config-date.
> # The time zone of the system is defined by the contents of /etc/localtime.
> ZONE="America/Los Angeles"
>>
>> > F8: # cat /etc/adjtime
>> > 0.568903 1217870667 0.000000
>> > 1217870667
>> > LOCAL
>> >
>> > F8:  # cat /etc/sysconfig/clock
>> > # The ZONE parameter is only evaluated by system-config-date.
>> > # The time zone of the system is defined by the contents of 
>> /etc/localtime.
>> > ZONE="America/Los Angeles"
>> >
>> >> C) it seems strange that the /etc/rc.d/init.d/ntpd is not syncing the
>> >> clock
>> >> before kicking off ntpd.
>> >> you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysconfig/ntpd
>> >> dostep=yes
>> >>
>> >> D) have you tried adding '-g' to OPTIONS=... in /etc/sysconfig/ntpd ?
>> >>
>> > Ok, added the above.  I will follow up on results soon.
>> >>
>> >>
>> <SNIP>
>> > Note: I did not have a date problem (that I was aware of) until very
>> > recently
>> >           and I ran all three (w2kPro, XP, f8) w/ no
>> >           problems for a "long" time.
>> >           It wasn't until I added in Vista and f9
>> >           when I noticed it.
>> Then verify Vista is using the SAME timezone as XP and w2kpro.  If it 
>> looks
>> like Vista is then you might want to search the net a bit and see if 
>> someone
>> has noticed Vista using different data for timezones than XP or w2kpro.
>>
>> [Note: don't change XP or w2kpro settings for timezone, just make sure 
>> they
>> are the same. Change Vista if needed.]
>>
> Interesting - F8 worked fine and no changes to date/time when booting
> w2kPro/XP/Vista and it most likely changed due to F9's UTC setting!?

Yes.
<SNIP>
> 
> [
> This message was in response to making changes to the /etc/ntpd file,
> adding in the dostep=yes, and -g option.
> ]
> 
> I decided to focus  f8, and made the changes per your request,
> rebooted, but I noticed that just before udev, there was a message
> saying something to the  effect:
> 
> "Setting clock: 8/4/08, 4:xx PM..."
> 
> But my time is 12:xx PM, so it was set ahead by 4+ hours
> by NTP and/or BIOs?  So, as a test, I disabled NTP, rebooted
> and the problem goes away!  Seems like NTP is the problem?
> 
> I even re-enabled NTP, but choose "Use local time source"
> and this setting did not corrupt the actual time on reboot,
> so perhaps it is because NTP is using the BIOs time clock?
> 

local clock is not useful if you are not the computer providing time to the 
rest of your network, and is an advanced/deep subject. [fedora should not 
configure it on by default and definitely should not configure it to be better 
than stratum 13. ]

> As a Side note:
> 1) The "Setting clock" message does not appear in f9 at all so
>     one may not get any idea that the time has changed...  is this
>     feature removed or only appears when a time change occurs?
> 
> Thanks to all!
> Dan
> 


-- 
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter