Re: [SLUG] Why is time slipping?

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2007 - 14:46:38 EST


Chuck Hast wrote:
> On 2/8/07, Paul M Foster <paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote:
>> Ian C. Blenke wrote:
>> > Paul M Foster wrote:
>> >
>> >> Folks:
>> >>
>> >> My wife's computer time is slipping, regardless of what I do.
>> >> According to ps ax, it's running the following:
>> >>
>> >> /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -u 116:116 -g
>> >>
>> >> The server(s) being queries are pool.ntp.org.
>> >>
>> >> With the -g parameter, if the network time and machine time are far
>> >> off from each other, ntp should simply reset the time properly. But
>> >> that's not what's happening.
>> >
>> >
>> > ntpd only "drifts" the clock slowly to bring time into sync with remote
>> > clocks.
>> >
>> > If your system clock is "too far off", you should use ntpdate to set
>> > your clock:
>> >
>> > /etc/init.d/ntpd stop # stop ntpd
>> > ntpdate pool.ntp.org # sync your system clock to the remote ntp
>> > servers
>> > hwclock --systohc # set your CMOS RTC to the system clock
>> > /etc/init.d/ntpd start # restart ntpd to keep the system clock
>> > in sync with remote servers
>> >
>> > Now your clock should stay in sync.
>> >
>>
>> If I'm gonna do that, I might as well scrap ntpd and run ntpdate every
>> hour.
>>
>> But my understanding of the -g option (per the man page) is that if the
>> time discrepancy exceeds the 1000 second limit, the daemon exits,
>> *unless* this option is specified. This option allows the daemon to set
>> the time value "without restriction".
>>
>> Moreover, if the ntpd daemon periodically checks time and adjusts it,
>> and slews or steps the time (what's the difference?), and it keeps being
>> bad, the daemon should be able to query the time servers more
>> frequently. But I can't find an option to increase the frequency with
>> which ntpd consults time servers.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
> I run it as a cron job...
>
>

Yeah, I'm doing that with ntpdate and hwclock, until I can get ntpd
debugged. But it's a kludgy solution.

My wife's machine is inexplicably slow anyway. It's a Sempron 3GHz
processor with 500M of memory and relatively new disks. But it runs like
a Pentium 1. That's another issue I don't have the expertise to repair
right now. So I know the machine is slow anyway. I'm just thinking ntpd
should be able to compensate for a machine that's working against it.

Paul

-- 
Paul M. Foster
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