Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 7750
does not keep proper time on laptop
Last modified: 2008-05-01 11:37:53 EDT
After upgrading to Redhat 6.1 from 6.0, I started noticing that the time kept slipping. When it reboots, the time is correct but it starts losing seconds immediately.... to the point where it can lose an hour or so a day. I have all of the updates, including gnome, and I am running the newest enlightenment. I also use vmware with Linux as host. I am not exactly certain when this problem occurred but I suspect that 1 of the 3 (upgrade, vmware, new enlightenment) may be the culprit. I also guessed at the file "time" as the one causing the problem.
Losing time is most likely a kernel problem, changing component
I have since changed laptops (upgraded to an updated model) and still have the same problem. I went from a Chembook 7400 to a 7400-B (Asus F-7400 to F-7400B).
This could be caused by the laptop loosing time while it is suspended. Does the time loss happen all at once or can you actually watch it happen while the system is in use?
You can watch it happen.... It loses time every minute...but nothing consistant that can be adjusted... at least the last time I tried months ago. I currently update my time through ntpdate cron every hour. I used to do it every minute since the loss was so bad.
Here are 8 hours worth of ntpdate updates: 1 Sep 20:01:47 ntpdate[5927]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 106.667959 sec 1 Sep 21:01:48 ntpdate[6198]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 106.906458 sec 1 Sep 22:01:48 ntpdate[6505]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 107.019308 sec 1 Sep 23:01:48 ntpdate[6855]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 106.444481 sec 2 Sep 00:01:47 ntpdate[7137]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 105.636691 sec 2 Sep 01:01:46 ntpdate[7421]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 105.362106 sec 2 Sep 02:01:55 ntpdate[7738]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 113.298043 sec 2 Sep 03:01:47 ntpdate[8009]: step time server 130.126.24.24 offset 105.456529 sec
From what I remember, most of these issues listed above were related to VMWARE module and time in the 2.2. kernel. It was something dealing with APM, VMWARE, and other 2.2 issues. The problem might be fixed in later VMWARE issues, but it is not a Red Hat problem but a closed source module problem.