Re: Strange dates with ntpd

[Julian Coleman <jdc%coris.org.uk@localhost>]

> >  # date
> >  Sat Apr 19 20:03:55 BST 10859
> This is already a strange date to start with. It should be check why we 
> get a date this far of
> after start-up - does the machine have a reasonably working real time 
> clock ?

Yes.  But, I'd replaced the system board, so it almost certainly had a
random value in the clock.

> ntpd will is supposed to be designed to work at any time even though it
> uses 32-bit second time stamps. 2^32 seconds are roughly 136 years.

> ntpd locked onto that era of 136 year cycles.

Ah - that's the bit that I was missing - thanks!

> So to sum up. ntpd thinks is is right (but far in the wrong era of 136 
> year cycles). rdate currently works,
> as is blindly transfers to corrects unix utc value.

> The fix usually is to make sure that the current system time is within 
> +- 68 years of the 'official' time.

I'll make sure that the clock in within 68 years of real time before starting
ntpdate/ntpd next time.

Thanks,

J

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