[ntp:questions] Re: Is ntp really what I need?

Paul Hilton paul_hilton at somedomain.com
Mon Feb 14 19:36:04 UTC 2005


On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 11:48:05 -0500, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> I'm afraid you are right about your system losing clock interrupts.  
> Unfortunately ntpd must rely on the proper operation of the clock.  It 
> can correct minor errors but it can do nothing in the face of an O/S 
> that gives higher priority to playing videos than to updating the 
> clock.  Change to a better O/S or play your videos somewhere else.

The timer interrupt is on IRQ0, theoretically higher priority than any
other. Playing videos is just an example, any job that uses all available
resources ( maybe interrupts, or maybe processor time ) causes the same
problem, but to a much lesser extent. Why it is losing the interrupts I
don't know. O/S decisions can obviously be changed or reconfigured if one
really knows what the problem is. This is my desktop machine, where I
sometimes play videos. It seems possible that kernel 2.6.x may do better,
I found a load of discussion about timer tick interrupts implying that
things were improved in the 2.5 series. Changing O/S for the rare
occasions when the clock goes astray seems a bit drastic though, what
would you suggest?

Thanks for the reply,
Paul Hilton



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