From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 25 17:13:19 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A18316A419 for ; Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:13:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9DB013C457 for ; Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:13:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from vanquish.pitbpa0.priv.collaborativefusion.com (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C709EBC81; Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:13:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:13:17 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: "Michael P. Soulier" Message-Id: <20070825131317.609d2b45.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20070825024209.GG5877@tigger.digitaltorque.ca> References: <20070825024209.GG5877@tigger.digitaltorque.ca> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.4 (GTK+ 2.10.14; i386-portbld-freebsd6.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: time issue X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:13:19 -0000 In response to "Michael P. Soulier" : > Hello, > > I recently noticed that my clock was running a few minutes slow, even though I > have ntpd running on the box. Now I'm seeing this on occasion. > > Aug 24 20:17:10 kanga dovecot: Time just moved backwards by 105 seconds. This > might c > ause a lot of problems, so I'll just kill myself now. > http://wiki.dovecot.org/TimeMov > edBackwards > > > Does this suggest a hardware clock issue? In addition to the other suggestions, FreeBSD may have chosen a crappy clock. Believe it or not, most motherboards have multiple clocks. Depending on the type of clock and the quality of the mobo, not all of these clocks are good for keeping time. FreeBSD tries to choose the best clock at boot time, but doesn't always get it right. For some interesting discussions on this topic, search the list archives for "calcru" or check out this FAQ entry: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/troubleshoot.html#LAPTOP-CLOCK-SKEW -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com