Time

[geezer]

My computer clock is 3 min fast

Trying to get the time synched - seems the automatic time synching feature doesn't work.

Have done the "system->date and time" and clicked the box to set date/time automatically - it doesn't seem to work and every time I look the box is unchecked. Doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever.

So I have been trying to use

sudo ntpdate -b time-a.nist.gov time-b.nist.gov

but get the message:

the NTP socket is in use, exiting

Tried webmin to suspend ntp to free the socket, but that doesn't seem to work, it doesn't suspend ntp.

Any suggestions??

[Snowhog]

Re: Time

Open a console and type:

man hwclock

You'll find all you need to know about how time is kept on your system and how to set it the way you want.

[geezer]

Re: Time

Open a console and type:

man hwclock

You'll find all you need to know about how time is kept on your system and how to set it the way you want.

sorry - no cigar.

hwclock can set the hwclock but does not do it automatically.

Nor does it do it from time servers on the net - that is the purpose of ntp.

But unfortunately for some unknown reason npt is running on my system, but does not seem to be working.

Either it cannot or does not access net time servers. Why - a mystery nobody on the forums has ever been able to explain to me. Nor have they been able to explain to me why the KDE control panel used to let me set the time servers I wish to use, but no longer does and then ignores the time servers that it adamantly insists on using but doesn't.

If anybody now has an explanation for this behavior, I would appreciate reading it. Hopefully the explanation would allow me to correct the situation.

As it is now I have seem to be limited to 2 options - neither option is very palatable:

1. access NIST time on the web and set the clock manually to that time, or
2. boot Vista (which I adamantly refuse to do except under duress and when having to efile taxes) and have Vista set the hwclock from NIST (which is another very funny thing - Linux/KDE/whatever seems to insist that nobody use NIST directly, yet NIST invites one and all to do so and Vista has 2 NIST time servers as default sources, at least my copy of Vista does/did - go figure)

[tmeehan]

Re: Time

When NTP doesn't work, it's usually due to either the firewall on your system or the firewall on your Internet access router. I doubt your ISP would block this, but you never know.

It may also be that the NTP servers you're trying to use are no longer accurate. Every few years, they change the server names it seems. Use this site to get the current details...
http://www.pool.ntp.org

For example, about 5-10 years ago, you could just specify something like time.nist.gov. Then they wanted you to use pool.ntp.org. Now, they want you to list the servers like this:
server 0.pool.ntp.org
server 1.pool.ntp.org
server 2.pool.ntp.org
server 3.pool.ntp.org

As for why the KDE Systems Settings tool doesn't retain the time, I don't know. I speculate that it's intended as a single use tool for synchronizing your system's time, not an NTP daemon configuration tool.

I'm not sure how you're confirming the NTP is not working, but I use the command line tool ntpdc. If you just type that at the command line, you'll be at a prompt. Type "peers" without the quotes and you should see a list of servers (something resembling your /etc/ntp.conf servers). If you don't, NTP is having problems.