System time synchronization | HW problem?

[Derick Centeno]

On Sun, 2005-01-02 at 05:58, Alexander Holst wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I have YDL 3.0.1 installed on a 266MHz Wallstreet and encounter some
> strange problems:
> 
> Everything works fine - exept the system time is running about twice as
> fast as it should. I genreal this means that in one hour, the system
> time advances roughly two hours (not bad if you want to leave work
> earlier than others ;).
> 
> Now, I got the Wallstreet from a friend, as both serial ports are
> defective (modem does not respond & no printer connected to the printer 
> port appears appears in the chooser). Could that somehow be related to
> the clock problem?
> 
> What is the reference the Linux kernel uses to obtain its internal
> system time clock cycles. To avoid misunderstandings, the HW clock works
> perfectly well - so under OS9 I do not encounter this problem. Funny
> enough, under OSX 10.3.x (via XPostFacto) the symptom is exactly the
> opposite: the kernel detects a CPU with 677 MHz (sometimes even up to
> 1,7GHz!) which leads to the fact that the OSX System time runs too slow,
> and all animations such as the appearance of the dock, are horrendously
> slow.
> 
> I do have a beige G3 233 MHz Desktop with the exact same setup and it
> does not show any of this behaviour. I also have confirmation that the
> symptoms are not present on a Wallstreet, which has no HW problems,
> running YDL 3.0 as well - so I assume some HW problem. I could live
> without serial ports, but the time issue isn't very practical.
> 
> In order to narrow down on the defective component: which HW part does
> the Linux kernel sync its time to at boot time? And on which board is it
> located in Wallstreet models - maybe the I/O-board in the rear, where
> the serial port connector is? I do have the possibility to order
> replacement parts from a company here which only repairs Apple
> portables, but they wouldn't know which of the parts to replace
> according to my descriptions - they recommended the modem, but then the
> printers should work, shouldn't they?
> 
> Here a snippet from dmesg:
> 
> GMT Delta read from XPRAM: 120 minutes, DST: on
> via_calibrate_decr: ticks per jiffy = 63509 (381058 ticks)
> Warning: real time clock seems stuck!
> Console: colour dummy device 80x25
> Calibrating delay loop... 202.75 BogoMIPS
> 
> This is the corresponding part of dmesg from my beige G3:
> 
> GMT Delta read from XPRAM: 120 minutes, DST: on
> via_calibrate_decr: ticks per jiffy = 167079 (1002477 ticks)
> Console: colour dummy device 80x25
> Calibrating delay loop... 466.94 BogoMIPS
> 
> Shouldn't the BogoMIPS always be roughly twice the CPU speed? If so, my
> Wallstreet should read something like 266x2=532 and not 202.75, as it
> does.
> 
> Any help apreciated !!! I would love to use the PowerBook to travel and
> get my emails and do some writing.
> 
> Regards & and a Happy NewYear,
> Alex
> 

Dear Alex:
First, Best wishes to you and all for the future.

Next some standard background which I remember reading regarding OS X
from Apple's documentation regarding OS X, which probably still is
available via it's website.  Also you can cross-check that with the
details on many Mac OS X software product packaging...you know...the
fine print.  Basically all, or nearly all, suggest/strongly suggest or
recommend/strongly recommend that OS X and software run on hardware
which is at least 800MHz and FASTER.  There was a time when 400MHz was
acceptable, for OS X, but that was surpassed long ago.  OS X will report
all sorts of things if it is running on hardware it doesn't expect to
find itself on.

OS 9 runs fine on such systems and slower.  I run OS9 on a 233MHz Beige
machine myself with no problems.

Now regarding YDL 3.0/3.0.1.  YDL 3.0/3.0.1 will have no problem running
on the system you describe as long as you are familiar with using BootX
so that you boot from OS9 into YDL.  Remember that you have to setup
BootX from within OS9 and after all the preparations are done then you
will boot into Linux.  OS X requires someother technology called yaboot
which in your case won't help because of the hardware issue limitations
of OS X.  Now there are work-arounds provided by Other World Computing
(OWC)(www.macsales.com)and other ingeniously inspired Mac-crazed
engineers creating/recreating stuff for your Mac (and even laptops)
which Apple never considered.  And yes, these adaptations do appear to
work well.

BUT as usual there remains the issue of the cost of getting these things
vs. the cost of just getting new updated hardware.

For instance, although OS 9 does work nicely with slow CPUs...it is a
dead OS and NO development for OS9 is occurring anywhere by anyone at
all.  So forget about software updates, virus updates, and so on...it's
dead.  Not even living dead, like the Addams Family or Dracula or the
Munsters, but really dead, dead.  As in NO support, unless you consider
websites discussing OS9 stuff as support.  Remember OS9 though nice, is
seriously flawed and vulnerable to the worms, viruses and so on out
there.  Yes, you can use OS9 to run your hardware, but I would better
recommend that you set up your Mac to boot immediately via BootX into
YDL instead and have Linux running a firewall at all times.

Running YDL3.0/3.0.1 on the equipment you describe having will and
should be no problem once you are booting into YDL from OS9.  Set and
check your clock and other settings from OS9.  You should discover then
a whole different set of behaviors...as in things should work fine and
after you set BootX to boot directly into Linux when the hardware is
booted up or turned on any other issues (clock, ethernet and other
settings) can be dealt from within YDL.

Some people have reported that it is possible to run YDL 4 by using
BootX from YDL 3.  That is, you would be booting into YDL4 from using
BootX running within OS9, and the preference would be that you would run
Linux all the time and the primary software you use becomes whatever is
running on Linux (OpenOffice, Gimp, and so on -- which at least you can
upgrade and modify/improve as it is Open Source and free); transferring
your Mac files into YDL should not be a problem unless you need
Photoshop and those kind of programs.  Fortunately, Linux has a lot of
software which you can recompile so that it runs within YDL and if you
translate your files so that Linux becomes your primary OS and workhorse
environment and you learn to master Linux applications in place of Mac
applications you can save yourself a ton of real cash.

It is NOT of course all that easy, but others on this list are running
YDL 4 on Old World Macs which is what you and I have.  

There is, as you know, only so far you can push the hardware of a
desktop or tower, let alone a laptop.  You may just be out of luck and
too underpowered as far as your hardware is concerned.  Living within an
all Linux (regardless of distribution) environment is a real test of
skill and temperment and after awhile most will revisit the question
(sooner rather than later) whether moving up to more powerful hardware
isn't the wiser alternative.

Once you are booting into Linux running BootX from within OS9 the
hardware oddities you report should disappear.  If not, then correcting
the problems from within Linux is the next step.  Then examine the
hardware browser, check the network gui and see what it tells you.

Of course, if you really know Linux/Unix you can run
ps -aux 

and the problem processes will then should up!

Best wishes...