Very Computer

by **Dan Sta** » Mon, 25 Oct 1999 04:00:00

Hi,

I am using RH6.0 and the clock does not stay accurate. I think this is
caused by my powering down the PC for most of the day and night. I set
it with Linuxconf and noticed that there was an option to store the time
in the BIOS using GMT but that it warned not to do this if another OS is
installed (Win95 here). So I don't know why this is happening. I would
think Linux could poll the BIOS clock on boot up to set its time. What
is happening?

--Dan

by **Friedrich Froeb** » Mon, 25 Oct 1999 04:00:00

>Hi,

>I am using RH6.0 and the clock does not stay accurate. I think this is
>caused by my powering down the PC for most of the day and night. I set
>it with Linuxconf and noticed that there was an option to store the time
>in the BIOS using GMT but that it warned not to do this if another OS is
>installed (Win95 here). So I don't know why this is happening. I would
>think Linux could poll the BIOS clock on boot up to set its time. What
>is happening?

>--Dan

It sounds to me like your BIOS clock never got set. Setting the date and
time in Linux using the "date" command does not automatically update the
BIOS clock - so the time you set will remain only until you power down the
system. The next time you boot, the BIOS clock will be read again, resulting
in the wrong time. See "man hwclock" for information on how to set the
BIOS clock.

If you have already tried this but the time is still coming up wrong, it's
possible that your BIOS battery is weak.

FF
--
To E-mail me, concatenate my first initial with my last name (all in lower
case) at ameritech dot net.

by **Stewart Honsberg** » Tue, 26 Oct 1999 04:00:00

>I am using RH6.0 and the clock does not stay accurate. I think this is
>caused by my powering down the PC for most of the day and night. I set
>it with Linuxconf and noticed that there was an option to store the time
>in the BIOS using GMT but that it warned not to do this if another OS is
>installed (Win95 here). So I don't know why this is happening. I would
>think Linux could poll the BIOS clock on boot up to set its time. What
>is happening?

Firstly, you shouldn't rely on an application to set the time for you. You
should either set it manually (man date) or have a program (the name escapes
me at the moment) grab the date/time from the Internet set your clock.

Does Windoze report the correct time at bootup? Otherwise, your CMOS battery
could be dead. (Happens all the time). If that's the case, just haul your
'puter open, take the battery out and take it to a local computer shop. You
should be able to pick up a new one fairly cheap.

As for setting the BIOS clock according to GMT, that's something that's
apparently a tradition of sorts. With your clock set to GMT, applications
calculate the local time according to your timezone setting (IE: my TZ is
EST, GMT -5:00).

--

Humming along under SuSE Linux 6.0 / OS/2 Warp 4

Very Computer

Lose Time Setting after PC Turned Off.

Lose Time Setting after PC Turned Off.

Lose Time Setting after PC Turned Off.

Lose Time Setting after PC Turned Off.