[ntp:questions] Re: NTPD 4 hours off date problem

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Mon May 9 18:10:58 UTC 2005


X.B. wrote:

> Hello,
>
> i'm using ntp ( 4.2.0 ) with a GPS Trimble 'Acutime' antenna and the 
> palisade driver.
>
> Everything works ok, but i've the following problem :
>
> The computer i'm using has no cmos battery, so each time it is cold 
> rebooted, the internal clock is set to something around 01-01-2000.
>
> In this case, ntpd -g -q cannot set up the date correctly.
> Nor can ntpd -g ...
>
> I've gone through the source code, and found that antenna's NTP 
> packets are thrown out (1) because the date they contain is more than 
> 4 hours ( CLOSETIME 4*60*60 ) off the system date ... So ntpd refuse 
> to set the date.
>
> Alas, this 4 hours delay check cannot be disabled using -g
>
> I couldn't find any reasonable solution to overcome this problem.
>
> - ntpdate ( which seems to become obsolescent ) cannot work with the 
> acutime ( as far as i understand )
> - i've no other time reference that the Gps antenna. So i cannot set 
> the date even aproximatively
> - i cannot come and manually set an aproximative date each time the 
> computer gets cold-rebooted :)
>
> I've surely missed something, as i cannot be the only guy on earth 
> using   NTP and a GPS antenna to set the time/date of a computer 
> without CMOS clock ...
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> (1) in clocktime called by refclock_process ( clk_badtime event ).

Have you considered installing a battery?  Most, if not all, computers 
have provision for one!  Sometimes, as in the case of Sun, it is not at 
all obvious (it's inside the epoxy encapsulation of a chip) but it's there.



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