Time Sources in WebGUI

[cervis]

Hello,

we are using pfsense 1.2.3-RELEASE with NTP-Server "de.pool.ntp.org"
The hardware is a very old PC and the hardware clock is running too fast, everyday I have a gap of more than 30 minutes to the real current time.

The time is synchronising to NTP servers no problem so far, but the webGUI is using different sources:
(1) Status: Traffic Graph shows allways the correct synchronized times from NTP
(2) Status: RRD Graphs shows the time of the hardware clock

I do not know, what the OpenNTPD service is doing, because the time the service is delivering is another one!

Is it possible to synchronize the hardware clock to the NTP time periodically?

[cervis]

Which FreeBSD shell command synchronizes the system clock to the hardware clock?

Perhaps I could install a cron job for periodically synchronization.

Thanks,
Stefan

[wallabybob]

If I recall correctly, ntpdate is supposed to run during startup to sync the clock with the specified reference clock. Then ntpd runs to nudge the local clock from time to time to keep it in step with the reference clock. ntpdate won't act if ntpd is running. See the FreeBSD man pages at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgifor more information on ntpdate and ntpd.

From what you have said it seems likely the hardware clock is way out of spec. I have a recollection a PC clock shouldn't drift by more than about a second a day. The software may not be able to cope with a clock so far wrong.

Depending on the CPU and chipset, it is sometimes possible for FreeBSD to choose an alternate clock source which might be more accurate than whatever is being used now.