Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Eric Sandall <eric AT sandall.us>]

Quoting Casey Harkins <charkins AT upl.cs.wisc.edu>:
> On a somewhat related note, the hwclock.sh init script was recently
> updated (added NEEDS="+local_fs") to fix issues when the hardware clock
> was stored in localtime. We thought this had something to do with the
> rtc.o module not being able to load without local_fs, but I the real
> problem was likely that /usr wasn't mounted and the /etc/localtime symlink
> couldn't be resolved. When the symlink can't be resolved, hwclock assumes
> --utc even if the --locatime parameter is specified. The NEEDS="+local_fs"
> fixes the problem for normal boot ups, but it will still break if /usr
> isn't mounted for some reason (i.e. single user mode).
> 
> The solution is to copy the zoneinfo file to /etc/localtime instead of
> symlinking. I'll test this on a machine with a localtime hardware clock
> and see if this fixes the problem without the NEEDS="+local_fs". I suggest
> we:
> 
> 1) make sure the 0.8 iso's installer copies instead of symlinks
> 2) update the hwclock.sh init script to check if /etc/localtime is a
> symlink and copy the file into place if it is
> 3) update the UPDATED field on util-linux (which installs the hwclock.sh
> script)
> 4) wait a month or two and remove the NEEDS="+local_fs" from hwclock.sh
> 
> Does this sound like an appropriate fix? Where should I bug this,
> codex->utils or basesystem->initscripts?
> 
> Maybe if /etc/localtime is a regular file and not a symlink, your
> mysterious demons will stopping linking it to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Factory.
> Not really a solution, but you could give it a try.
> 
> -casey
> 
> 
> References:
> http://bugs.linuxfromscratch.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=19140
> http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=91228

I think it should remain a symlink, but make hwclock more intelligent, if we
can. However, this might fix my problem, but I don't believe it would be a
'correct' fix, as it happens without rebooting, unless hwclock is run via 
cron,
but I don't have any cron entries for it? I think Hamish may have hit upon it
with ntp being installed.

-sandalle

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Eric Sandall                     |  Source Mage GNU/Linux Developer
eric AT sandall.us                  |  http://www.sourcemage.org/
http://eric.sandall.us/          |  SysAdmin @ Inst. Shock Physics @ WSU
http://counter.li.org/  #196285  |  http://www.shock.wsu.edu/

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