system clock is too slow

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 27 July 2004 23:17, Erik Hemdal wrote:
[...]
>I'll
>
>>definetely run ntpdate at boot and will run ntpd as a daemon!
>>
>>Thanks Rick and Ben!
>
>The larger question, beyond use of ntpd, is why the clock runs slow.
>I've only seen this happen on systems that are extremely heavily
>loaded.  When the system runs near 100% load all the time, the
> real-time clock interrupt gets starved, and the clock drifts back. 
> And the only time I've seen this occur is with a computer running a
> heavy compute load, like the SETI at Home daemon or the Folding at Home
> program.  I'd investigate this if you are running programs like
> this and your computer sits otherwise idle for a long time.

I've been running seti at home for 5 years, and have never had a clock 
error that simply wasn't the cheapassed crytals used on current 
mobo's.  Accuracy wise, these aren't even "timex" quality.  They will 
often drift 5-10 seconds a day, and thats been all the correction 
needed so far on these 2 machines.

Its the reboot screwups after a crash that I'm fussing about.  They 
make you examine your sanity when you made the choice of putting the 
hw clock on Grenwich time.

>Be advised that ntpd can cause you some grief when it has to do a
> lot of "slewing" as Rick described.  I had to build and install
> some Perl packages from CPAN recently, and the "slewing" altered
> timestamps enough to confuse the tests and cause the installation
> to fail.

>Using ntpd is a good idea, but take some time to try to find the
> root cause.

>Hope this helps...Erik

-- 
Cheers, Gene
There are 4 boxes to be used in defense of liberty. 
Soap, ballot, jury, and ammo.
Please use in that order, starting now.  -Ed Howdershelt, Author
Additions to this message made by Gene Heskett are Copyright 2004, 
Maurice E. Heskett, all rights reserved.