Topic: 7.4 Centos 4.7 divider= boot option available for VM Clock Fix?

[mudtoe]

Hi folks:

I saw that version 7.4 has Centos 4.7 in it.  Does anyone know if this version of Centos has the divider= boot option available in it?  That options allows you to slow down the rate of clock timer interrupts, which is supposed to correct the really bad clock drift problems that occur when running 4.6 in a VM.  I saw from the Centos site that version 4.7 after September 12th is supposed to have that option.  I wasn't able to determine the exact build that represented though.  If this update has a Centos version that supports that option, then it would be worth my while to upgrade early, as I have a severe case of VM induced click drift that I've been unable to correct so far.

mudtoe

[cactus]

Hi folks:

I saw that version 7.4 has Centos 4.7 in it.  Does anyone know if this version of Centos has the divider= boot option available in it?  That options allows you to slow down the rate of clock timer interrupts, which is supposed to correct the really bad clock drift problems that occur when running 4.6 in a VM.  I saw from the Centos site that version 4.7 after September 12th is supposed to have that option.  I wasn't able to determine the exact build that represented though.  If this update has a Centos version that supports that option, then it would be worth my while to upgrade early, as I have a severe case of VM induced click drift that I've been unable to correct so far.

mudtoe

AFAIK there are more options for that: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf (especially pages 11-13). Perhaps this might also be of help: http://www.synapticsolutions.com.au/?page_id=28

[mudtoe]

I've tried everything imaginable, and the clock still loses about 20 seconds per minute.   None of the solutions VMWare offered, or playing with the 4.6 available boot options (e.g. clock=, noapic, etc.) have fixed it.  It ends up losing a couple of minutes before the vmtools clock synch option resets it.
 
mudtoe

[cactus]

I've tried everything imaginable, and the clock still loses about 20 seconds per minute.   None of the solutions VMWare offered, or playing with the 4.6 available boot options (e.g. clock=, noapic, etc.) have fixed it.  It ends up losing a couple of minutes before the vmtools clock synch option resets it.
 
mudtoe

Most off them need to be applied to the host OS (as well) I believe, did you do so?

[Stefano]

I've tried everything imaginable, and the clock still loses about 20 seconds per minute.   None of the solutions VMWare offered, or playing with the 4.6 available boot options (e.g. clock=, noapic, etc.) have fixed it.  It ends up losing a couple of minutes before the vmtools clock synch option resets it.
 
mudtoe

Hi..

I have vmware-tools running on a virtual SME and everything is working fine..
before installing vmware-tools SME's clock was losing about 15/20 seconds a minute..

But, unfortunately, I don't remember how I did manage to install vmware-tools..

Ciao
Stefano

[cactus]

But, unfortunately, I don't remember how I did manage to install vmware-tools..

Does this (http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,40933.0.html) refresh your memory?

[mudtoe]

Most off them need to be applied to the host OS (as well) I believe, did you do so?

The host is Windows 2003 server.

mudtoe

[MAuVE]

Long ago, I had the clock drift problem resolved with:

"clock=pmtmr nosmp noapic nolapic" at /boot/grub/grub.conf

Some days after upgrading to SME 7.4 I noticed that the clock drift had bounced back.

I found the following article that for Centos 4.7 indicates the addition of "divider=10"

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006427

I added "divider=10" and timekeeping seems to have switched back to normal again.

[mudtoe]

Long ago, I had the clock drift problem resolved with:

"clock=pmtmr nosmp noapic nolapic" at /boot/grub/grub.conf

Some days after upgrading to SME 7.4 I noticed that the clock drift had bounced back.

I found the following article that for Centos 4.7 indicates the addition of "divider=10"

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006427

I added "divider=10" and timekeeping seems to have switched back to normal again.

You may have the answer that I need then!  So, the version of Centos with 4.7 does support the divider= boot option?


mudtoe

[mudtoe]

I finally got the upgrade to 7.4 to work, and I put in the "divider=10" option, but I still have the clock drift problem (it loses about 20 seconds per minute).  I'm trying to find a log of the actual console message that occur during boot time in order to verify that it didn't reject the divider option (the boot screen messages scroll by to fast for me to see them all), but boot.log and messages.log don't have the console messages. 
 
mudtoe