Re: hwclock

[Michael Schmitz <schmitz@mail.biophys.uni-duesseldorf.de>]

> Well, I got this from the Apple Tech Info Library (not very tech, though, is
> it?)
> 
> Only the Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time settings are saved only in PRAM,
> not the current date or time. After resetting the PRAM, Time Zone and
> Daylight Saving Time settings are restored to their default factory settings
> which are:
>                                  No Time Zone has been specified
>                                  Daylight Saving Time checkbox is unchecked
> 
>                           The current date and current time settings are
> retained in a separate clock chip on the logic board. This clock is not
> reset unless the computer's external power and battery power are removed
> from the computer. Additionally, some Macintosh computers include a reset
> button on the logic board which also resets the current date and current
> time.

Probably true, but almost completely useless for us. We are neither told
by Apple how to read the time zone offset from the parameter RAM, nor how
to read the current date and time from the hardware clock. Someone may be
able to figure that out by either looking at NetBSD source, or MacOS apps
or ROM disassembly, or brute force trial and error, but given the amount
of kernel development currently going on for Mac I don't think there's a
chance of that happening before the Mac clock rolls over anyway. 

Sorry to say this, but compared to other problems with Macs, this really
isn't any problem. If the machine doesn't like the hwclock call, just
comment out lines containing hwclock in any scripts in /etc/init.d/. If
the booter does not pass the correct date and time, add a line to one of
the init scripts to prompt the user for this information during startup.
(If you are running Debian on your machine and never saw these funky init
scripts, better start reading up on Linux system administration.) It's an
easy enough to work around problem. 

	Michael