Subject: Re: clock drifts under certain conditions
To: Tobias Nygren <tnn@netilium.org>
From: Tracy Di Marco White <netbsd@gendalia.org>
List: port-alpha
Date: 11/22/2005 12:10:11
In message <53825.85.8.3.143.1132678710.squirrel@webmail.netilium.org>, "Tobias Nygren" writes:
>Heads up, alpha hackers :)
>
>I've noticed a strange clock drift problem on my machines(as4100
>and pc164sx). When I leave the box idle I get an ntp frequency
>error of typically less than 10ppm as reported by ntptime(8).
>But when applying certain types of load to the system the
>frequency error rockets to 512 ppm!
>
>For debugging purposes I run with only one processor to rule out
>any problems in the ipi code. (This is on -current)

I'm having problems with time on 3.0_BETA on i386.  I added "-N"
to my ntpd options, and that has often taken care of the frequency
error problem (http://www.hmug.org/man/8/ntpd.php):

     -N priority
             To the extent permitted by the operating system, run the ntpd at
             a high priority.

It does not actually make my machines keep time unless MPBIOS is
disabled (on i386) or named is not running.  I've filed a PR, 32035.

-Tracy