On Sun, Dec 31, 2000 at 06:08:43PM -0500, patd@dahiroc.net wrote:
>
> 2) hwclock and ntp
> i run ntp to keep my system time correct.
A good idea.
> i didn't even know
> that i update my hardware clock until i came across
> /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh, which update the hw clock during
> shutdown and updates the system clock during boot-up. i
> hardly ever shutdown my system - should i even bother updating
> my hw clock?
Why does this trouble you? The hwclock updates are a feature of ntp.
They also offer you some insurance in the event of an unexpected
system interruption. Unless you have a REALLY slow system, this is
costing you much too little to worry about.
> i can see the advantage of saving the system to
> the hw during shutdown, but i probably should not set the
> system time from hw during boot-up since ntp will do this for
> me.
Actually, ntpd will fail to run if the system clock is too far off.
So it is good to have a reasonably close time at startup. If you have
a really flaky hardware clock, you should add a command to run ntpdate
using a reliable server to your startup script before running ntpd.
> also i read somewhere that the hw clock is updated from
> the system clock every 11 minutes. is this really necessary?
> if not how do i stop this?
>
I don't recall seeing this statement. I do recall seeing something
like the software clock being updated every 18 (or so) minutes. This
would happen more often but there is also an explanation (which I
don't recall) for it.
It seems like you are extremely (overly?) concerned with the impact
that ntp is having on your system performance.
First, I doubt that ntp is the culprit in any performance issues you
are encountering. Second, if you're really that worried about it, you
might want to not run ntpd. There are other, less computationally
intense ways of setting your time. rdate comes to mind. Since you've
got ntp installed, you could just run ntpdate at system startup and
skip ntpd.
ntp is a fairly paranoid attempt to keep a REALLY accurate system
clock. I like it for that very reason. (Okay, so I'm nuts.) Most
people don't need it and would be satisfied with having a system clock
set to the correct day. ntp goes to a lot of effort to try to
calculate the correct compensation for network delays. This involves
some compute time and some network access. I would guess these
(though negligible) would have more impact on your system's
performance than correcting the hardware clock.
> 3) update-modules /lib/modules/2.2.18
> i've updated my modules.conf by turning off the following
> network protocols:
> alias net-pf-3 off # Amateur Radio AX.25
> alias net-pf-4 off # IPX
> alias net-pf-5 off # DDP / appletalk
> alias net-pf-6 off # Amateur Radio NET/ROM
> alias net-pf-9 off # X.25
> alias net-pf-11 off # ROSE / Amateur RadioX.25 PLP
> alias net-pf-19 off # Acorn Econet
> chances are i don't need these modules. i then ran
> update-modules but now i get this message during start-up:
>
> Dec 31 16:59:52 yakko modprobe: Note:
> /etc/modules.conf is more recent than
> /lib/modules/2.2.18/modules.dep
>
> is this normal? should i touch modules.dep to get rid of this
> warning or did i do something wrong.
>
Just run depmod -a.
--
David Benfell
benfell@greybeard95a.com
---
The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all
who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.
-- Benjamin Franklin.
[from fortune]
Attachment:
pgpANZS6xmK2I.pgp
Description: PGP signature