cmos clock to utc time code?

[Philip M. Gollucci]

jekillen wrote:
> Hello again;
> Here I am with another awkward question:
> I have set up ntp and it is complaining that
> the time difference is too great; 3606 or so
> seconds, and wants the system clock set to
> utc. I rebooted and entered bios set up
> but I did not see any explicit clues on how
> to set this clock to utc. (0r even if it is possible).
> The motherboard is ECS w/AMD64. I did
> not catch the bios vendor or version. If  I have
> to I will reboot again to look at it or dig up the
> manual for the motherboard.
> I tried sysinstall but it just asks if the system
> clock is set to utc. (thus the question here)
> Any advice, suggestions, info appreciated;
> Thanks in advance
> Jeff K
This doesn't really have anything to do with your CMOS clock.

sysctl kern.securelevel

at > 1, you can't change the clock by more than 1 second.

man 7 securelevel

Look for phrase - 'The security levels are:'

You can't lower it without rebooting.
You can change it in /etc/rc.conf(5).

$ grep secure /etc/rc.conf
  kern_securelevel="-1"
  kern_securelevel_enable="YES"

Or your could boot single user mode and run ntpdate once yourself since
the securelevel (securit level) isn't set until you go multi-user mode.
$ ntpdate server.com

HOWEVER, I recommend the new fangled way you are supposed to do this:
1) Enable it in /etc/rc.conf(5)
  echo 'ntpd_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
  echo 'ntpd_sync_on_start="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

2) Create /etc/ntp.conf(5)
  echo "server ntp-1.vt.edu" > /etc/rc.conf
  echo "driftfile /var/db/ntp.drift" >> /etc/rc.conf

Use time servers close to you though and more than 1.

3) Reboot

Finally, about the timezone
By default sysinstall(8) copies a file from /usr/share/zoneinfo to /etc
as file localtime based on your choices during the install.  You can
even run sysinstall again to update it post install.

ls -l /etc/localtime
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel  -  1.2K Jul 25 14:58:48 2007 /etc/localtime

HOWEVER, its easier to just create a symlink to the one you want.
If you want your system to run in utc time do this:
cd /etc
sudo rm -rf /etc/localtime
sudo ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/etc/UTC localtime


Test it:
$ date

(bash syntax)
$ TZ=America/New_York date

.....

Check your ntpd(8) communications with time servers:
$ ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset
jitter
==============================================================================
*ntp-1.cns.vt.ed 198.82.247.40    2 u   97 1024  377   15.690   37.394
23.382


-- 
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Philip M. Gollucci (philip at ridecharge.com)
o:703.549.2050x206
Senior System Admin - Riderway, Inc.
http://riderway.com / http://ridecharge.com
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