Topic: [SOLVED] Time is always eight hours off

[LANMonkey]

I have tried using 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org, pool.ntp.org and setting the time manually and it doesn't matter.  I go back to look what time it says and it is always eight hours off.  If it is January 12, 2009 9:26 AM, it will read January 12, 2009 1:26 AM.  It seems to have the time zone set correctly to America/Los Angeles.  I am in the Sacramento, CA area.

What is going on and how do I fix it?

[cactus]

What is going on and how do I fix it?

Your best bet is the bugracker.

[LANMonkey]

The problem seems to have cleared up using a remote time server.  I have yet to see if the problem persists when set manually, but apparently it just took a little while for the time to set against a remote server.

[Stefano]

The problem seems to have cleared up using a remote time server.  I have yet to see if the problem persists when set manually, but apparently it just took a little while for the time to set against a remote server.

if you setup your SME with a wrong date/time, time sync with remote server will fail if the difference is more than... well, I don't remember..

in this case, you should adjust your date/time manually an then change to sync to a time server.

Anyway, if you find something that does not work out-of-the-box, you should open a bug

Ciao
Stefano

[LANMonkey]

Very strange.  Now the problem is showing up in the BIOS settings.  I have the BIOS set up to start the machine up once a day at a certain time.  It was working and now that the SME settings are working, the BIOS clock is off by the same time.

[cactus]

Very strange.  Now the problem is showing up in the BIOS settings.  I have the BIOS set up to start the machine up once a day at a certain time.  It was working and now that the SME settings are working, the BIOS clock is off by the same time.

What timezone did you configure for your machine and how did you configure the system clock to run GMT perhaps?

[LANMonkey]

The BIOS clock does not have a time zone setting.  I have never seen a time zone setting in the BIOS clock setting.  The operating system clock has a correct time zone setting (PST for Central Northern California) and the time is correct too.  Again, I am using a network time server for the operating system.

I have tried setting the BIOS clock one more time.  Let's give it another 24 hours.

Still ... why would the BIOS clock change?

[mercyh]

SME is not installed on a Virtual Machine by chance?

[LANMonkey]

No, I certainly would have pointed that out.

  I still don't have a clue about virtual machines.  Sounds like an operating system for operating systems. 

The hardware is an old OptiPlex from Dell.

[mercyh]

I thought it surely didn't pay to ask but the bios clock change sounded like something that can happen in that configuration.

The puzzling thing here is that it is always exactly 8hrs. This would indicate a time zone problem between the bios clock and the Software clock. As near as I can understant Linux does not ever write the software time back to the BIOS time. (I could be wrong on this) And it only checks the BIOS time at startup.

Windows on the other hand always writes the Software time back to the BIOS clock.

If the time was erratic and just lost time or gained time I would suspect a dying CMOS battery as you indicate this is an older system. The fact that the time is exactly 8 hours off indicates that this is not the problem.

[LANMonkey]

Yes, I was hoping it was a battery problem.  The thing that I worry about is a potential relationship between the BIOS and the software running on the computer which is bound to be way over my head.  I'm a little disturbed to hear that software can write back to the BIOS, although I'm comfortable that some BIOS's have anti-virus protection.  But, I haven't seen that for a while.

[mercyh]

I am sure you have read this: http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:Administration_Manual:Chapter13#Set_date_and_time

and I see you have done what it suggests (setting the time manually to the correct time and timezone and then turning on NTP.)

Can you set the time manually, log out of server-manager, Log back into server-manger and see that your change has held?

Is this an old install that has been working fine up until now or is it a new install that has never worked correctly?

[LANMonkey]

Yes, I've been in and out of the Server Manager many times only to see the time is correct now that I use a time server.

Come to think of it, it is not until I changed to use the time server that it would hold the correct time.  Ever since I installed it, the problem was the same.  The installation is at least a month old.

[LANMonkey]

....

I have tried setting the BIOS clock one more time.  Let's give it another 24 hours.

Still ... why would the BIOS clock change?

It's off again.  There is no question about it.  The software is changing the BIOS setting.

[cactus]

It's off again.  There is no question about it.  The software is changing the BIOS setting.

What is the time now on your server and what should it be? In other words what is the difference? Is it constant?

Code: [Select]

date

Code: [Select]

hwclock
What is the output of

Code: [Select]

ls -la /etc/localtime
Did you perhaps say that your system clock uses UTC during installation and is your localtime perhaps differing 8 hours from UTC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_zones)?