How to disable "checking system clock [UTC]" in start-up?

[josolanes]

First, i'm using ntpdate to sync my system clock before it boots because if i don't my clock is off by 4 hours (4 hours slow).

Well, i recently started using initng to start my computer services and such (starts everything in parallel)...which has sped up start up time some. but now one of two things happened when i did this...either ntpdate is starting before it checks the system clock or ntpdate isn't starting at all.

how should i fix this?

if i can't fix this, than can someone help me figure out why my system clock is off by 4 hours? my bios time is right and my timezone is right...

[jaboua]

Is your system-clock (in the BIOS) set to local time or UTC? If it's for example local time and linux belive it's UTC, then you get a clock skew. This can be configured in /etc/conf.d/clock

[josolanes]

Is your system-clock (in the BIOS) set to local time or UTC? If it's for example local time and linux belive it's UTC, then you get a clock skew. This can be configured in /etc/conf.d/clock

i'm not sure how to check whehter my bios clock is utc or local, but i changed the /etc/conf.d/clock to local instead of UTC and rebooted out of curiosity. the time is still the same...4 hours behind

any idea what it might be?

thanks for helping

[jaboua]

Have you configured the correct timezone? Do an "ls -l /etc/localtime"

[josolanes]

Have you configured the correct timezone? Do an "ls -l /etc/localtime"

this is what i get:

localhost josh # ls -l /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 36 Jul 13 06:21 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York

i live in fl (same timezone as new york), so it seems alright

[jaboua]

When you changed to local time and rebooted, did you disable NTP? Have you tried symlinking /etc/localtime to /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC or whatever it's called just to check?

[budman7]

Instead of America/new york, maybe you sould try EST5EDT.

I live in Michigan and that is the same timezone as N.Y. and EST5EDT is what I use.

[josolanes]

Instead of America/new york, maybe you sould try EST5EDT.

I live in Michigan and that is the same timezone as N.Y. and EST5EDT is what I use.

that's my new timezone and it still has the same time...4 hours behind. i don't get it

[josolanes]

When you changed to local time and rebooted, did you disable NTP? Have you tried symlinking /etc/localtime to /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC or whatever it's called just to check?

i haven't tried that yet

...just to make sure before i do that, this is what i would type to do this...?

ln -s /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC

i just want to make sure that's what i do

[junkman4547]

My clock was all screwed up also but I made the change through desktop GUI. The thing is, I had to do it twice ! ! The first time it reverted back to the wrong time, then I did it again, and now it's ok.