Bugzilla – Bug 132918
/etc/rc.d/ntp should write clock to CMOS after doing ntpdate
Last modified: 2005-11-28 11:32:49 UTC
When ntpd is running, the kernel automatically updates CMOS every 13 minutes to match the system time. However, the updates can only work when time is off by less than +-15 minutes. As a result, if the CMOS time is completely wrong, ntpdate changes the system time to the correct value, the discrepancy between CMOS and system time is much larger. The kernel will try to update the CMOS time each 13 minutes, and will FAIL, saying so in the kernel log. A correct fix is to use 'hwclock' to update the CMOS time after ntpdate was run, to fix any differences larger than 15 minutes.
Hm i really dont know if i want to do this. The ntp init script is already a pile of functions working around stuff that a system adiministrator should take care of manually. If your CMOS clock is that much off you should correct it, not ntp.
I see your point. However, in that case one could argue that 'adjtime' should be used instead of ntpdate in that script, too. There are machines that don't keep the time all that well when turned off, and where NTP is the only sane option. On those the kernel CMOS updates will fail, and the administrator would have to fix the CMOS time all too much often.
ok i will implement it with a sysconfig variable default set to no. Like NTP_ADJUST_CMOS_CLOCK='no'. Is that ok for you?
Yes, I think that'd be fine.
done in factory