On Sun, 26 Aug 2007, Karl Larsen wrote:
Lonni J Friedman wrote:
On 8/26/07, Karl Larsen <k5di@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Lonni J Friedman wrote:
I've got a Fedora 7 (x86) system that started exhibiting truly bizarre
behavior about a week ago. Basically, the clock stopped working. If
I run 'date' it shows the date/time from a few days earlier, and it
*never* changes. If I touch a file, it has the date/timestamp from
the time/date in date output. The odd thing is that this behavior
only happens when the system sits relatively idle for a long chunk of
time (at least 24 hours). If i'm actively using it every day, then
its fine. If I reboot, then the problem goes away (and the system has
the correct time after rebooting).
The first time that this happened was last weekend (Aug 18), and I had
to reboot it last Monday (Aug 20) to fix the problem. Its now
happened again. At this moment in time, date claims that its Sat Aug
25, even though its actually Sun Aug 26 right now.
To make matters worse, the system behaves oddly when this problem
occurs. I suspect its because anything that relies on getting an
accurate (or changing) clock is failing. If I attempt to reboot
cleanly, it just never happens. The system acts frozen in time.
I've checked dmesg & messages, and there's nothing there. messages
just stops logging anything around the time that the clock appears to
have frozen.
Anyone ever seen this bizarre behavior, or have any ideas what might
be going on?
There is a battery on your motherboard and it has a clock that needs
the battery. Linux checks the computer battery every so often so check
that battery and replace if needed. I can cause all your problems.
If it was the CMOS battery, why would it be working fine for days,
stop working, then start working again after a reboot?
Also, I've never heard of Linux being capable of checking the CMOS
battery. What specifically is doing this check?
Additionally, the CMOS battery is only needed when the system is
powered down and/or doesn't have external power. It certainly isn't
used to keep the system clock running while the system is running on
external power.
I appreciate your feedback, but what you're saying really doesn't make
any sense.
Sorry but I wanted to say the battery runs a clock on your motherboard
that Linux reads from time to time. If the battery is dead or weak it will
not run the clock with accuracy.
Better?
Nope, the battery backed CMOS clock is only read by the kernel at boot
time but never again. After that the "software" clock in the kernel is
updated by a hardware interrupt.
To the OP it almost sounds like a hardware problem.
Try 'cat /proc/interrupts | grep timer' two times or more.
Look at the number just to the right of '0:'
This should have incremented a bunch in between cat's. If it didn't then
you likely have a hardware problem or the timer is failing to get
initialized. If it is incrementing then I'm stumped...
-- Mike
