Re: ntpd won't sync

[Havard Eidnes <he%uninett.no@localhost>]

> Hi.  I have a computer based on a Tyan Tiger i7501 motherboard, which 
> hosts two 2GHz Xeons with Hyperthreading.  ntpd won't sync on it.  I've 
> tried changing the kern.timecounter.hardware from ACPI-Fast (the 
> default) to TSC and i8254.
>
> It appears to work marginally better when set to i8254, but it still 
> doesn't sync.  The jitter figure from "ntpq -p" seems to stabilize in 
> the mid 50s, when kern.timecounter.hardware is set to ACPI-Fast.  The 
> synch distance figure from "ntptrace" seems to grow without bound.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?  I'd be happy to provide any further information 
> necessary.  This machine is my file server, and I would really like for 
> it to have its clock run accurately.

How many NTP servers do you have configured?  I scratched my head
a long time for a similar issue a while back, and if I recall
correctly, ntpd now really, *really*, wants 3 (?) or more NTP
servers before disciplining the local clock.

Regards,

- Håvard