Kernel clock issue "Clocksource tsc unstable"

[NoOp]

On 02/27/2009 07:16 PM, Hal Burgiss wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 06:30:30PM -0800, NoOp wrote:
> 
>> I wonder if perhaps when Hal reboots his machines the reason why the
>> clocks/dates get readjusted properly is because the boot causes the
>> ntpdata script to run:
>> 
>> /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate
>> 
>> and hence resync?
>> 
>> @Hal: next time, instead of rebooting (you'll still have to go to the
>> data center most likely), you might try
>> sudo /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate
>> first. If that resyncs the machine properly without the reboot, then you
>> might want to look into running ntp on those machines if you aren't
>> already. And if you are running ntp, have a look at the ntp source. You
>> can elect to have multiple sources; I use 0.us.pool.ntp.org and have
>> 1.us.pool.ntp.org as the backup. Just a thought...
> 
> NoOp,
> 
> I am doing time syncs regularly now on all machines. I have also done
> a manual sync when I noticed the clock was way off the first time. The
> time reset to the correct time just fine. But it would not update. So
> I sit at the prompt and type 'date' over and over, and it is always
> the same, give or take. (Reminds me of an old Twilight Zone where the
> guy broke the magic watch and time stood still forever!). It sometimes
> will read a second or two less, but it never goes back to incrementing
> like it should. You can sit there for an hour, and it will be within a
> second or two of whenever the time was synced last. I know this sounds
> strange, but the clock is just stuck. 
> 
> Also, by this point, daemons like syslog have stopped completely.
> Resyncing time does not help. Restarting syslog will cause the
> terminal to completely hang. Ctrl-c does nothing. The system is
> screwed. I tried typing 'reboot' today, and the system hung at (IIRC)
> shutting down mysql. Some daemons will work fine under the
> circumstances and some don't. I had no trouble connecting to Apache on
> the same machine. The price of sanity is a reset. 
> 
> My time syncs run at :05 on all machines. That is also always the time
> the clock always stops at. 
> 
> Thanks.
> 

Now that's just plain odd. Time to buy a Timex :-)

Just for the heck of it, can you try:

sudo /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate

and see if 'date' increments afterwards? Note: I doubt that will fix
anything, just curious as to the results.