What's the easiest way to make Busybox keep correct time?

Harald Becker ralda at gmx.de
Mon Sep 1 11:00:27 UTC 2014


Hi !

 > Actually, the hwclock time is what's inaccurate

:-( ... bad hardware!

> That is very interesting but since this system is always connected to the
> Internet, I'm not sure I need to be that concerned about the hardware clock.

If your system is always connected to a functioning Internet connection, 
you won't need it, with a running ntpd ... but as you told you are going 
to record Satellite or Terrestrial TV, so think about situations where 
the Internet connection dropped (for which reason ever). As soon as ntpd 
can't contact the public time server, your clock starts to run away from 
the real time. So it will depend how long the Connection is missing. For 
short drop outs, it won't make much difference, but when the connection 
is lost for hours, the time drifts away and your recording time may be 
too. That is using adjtimex to correct you system clock to drift as less 
as possible, will help to solve such Internet drop outs.

It is your decision, if you use it or not, I just wanted to tell you the 
possibility, if you get in need of a solution without working Internet 
connection.

> Although, it might be nice if there were a way to check and see if ntpd is
> running, and if so, update the hardware clock from the system clock
> periodically.

The usual way is to see output of ps/top if process is running, and a 
ping to the time server (see if working connection). Then ntpd normally 
does it's job pretty well. After that, just watch your time, now and the 
day after and see how much clock difference you get ...

--
Harald



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