Re: clock suddenly slipping behind

[Stefan O'Rear <stefanor@cox.net>]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 11:23:07PM -0400, Nori Heikkinen wrote:
> over the past few days, i've noticed that my system clock gets about
> ten to fifteen minutes slow over the course of a day.  this is really
> weird!  i've been using ntpdate to synchronize it with a timeserver
> whenever i notice it, and i put it in a once-a-day cron job, but i
> want my system to ALWAYS be on time.  i'm confused as to what's
> causing this, and how i can fix it.  any ideas?

Perhaps your PIT is going south? (PIT = Programmable Interval Timer,
a variable-frequency timer usually set to 100HZ by Linux.)

I'd take the easy way out and turn ntpdate into a minutely job.

WARNING: The linux scheduler uses the pit and the pit alone. If the pit
         stops, your system WILL lock up hard.