If this only happens at boot (and the clock stays correct after it is properly set), then the kernel and/or hwclock must simply be reading your CMOS clock wrong.
I've seen hwclock fail before with some weird motherboards... I've never seen it set the kernel clock to a random time (if it fails, it will normally just not read/write the CMOS clock at all), but I can imagine scenarios that might lead to the clock being set pseudo-randomly. Perhaps an old version of hwclock worked fine, and some hwclock or rtc driver upgrade caused it to break for you? In Ubuntu Oneiric, /etc/init/hwclock.conf runs hwclock at boot time. I would try disabling that and see if the kernel gets the correct time on it's own. If it doesn't, then try running `hwclock --show` manually (as root) and see what it spits out. If it fails or returns a bizarre result, try `hwclock --show --directisa`. If that fixes it, simply update /etc/init/hwclock.conf (and re-enable the use of hwclock at boot time). Also check for /etc/adjtime - that file might be corrupted and causing hwclock to skew your clock a lot. -Paul On Fri, Apr 06, 2012 at 07:25:37PM -0700, Howard Sanner wrote: > Well, just to prove you wrong, here's a nagging annoyance I don't > know how to fix. > > The system is a desktop computer. > > Twice a year, when we change to daylight saving time and back to > standard time, the clock/calendar on my computer starts displaying > dates and times that would pass a lot of tests for randomness. The > date is always behind the actual date, by a varying number of days, > but never more than a month or so; the time does seem truly random. > The discrepancy is waaay beyond zulu vs. local time. > > The date and time in CMOS is correct. The battery is fresh. > > I have repeatedly adjusted the date and time, including as root, and > that doesn't fix it. (The time & date stay corrected until the > system is rebooted.) > > Eventually--maybe over the course of a couple of months--it'll > settle down to the correct date and a time that is within a few > minutes of reality. Close enough for jazz. > > The problem has developed over the last year or two; it didn't exist > when the computer was new. > > Thoughts? > > Thanks. > > Howard Sanner > linux-au...@terrier.ampexguy.com > > > > Quoting Randolph Baden <randy.ba...@gmail.com>: > > >Linux has become too easy to use. No one needs help anymore. :) >
