System time synchronization | HW problem?

[Bill Fink]

Hi Alex,

On Mon Jan 3 2005, Alexander Holst wrote:

> My problem is: I do _not_ need _new_ hardware, I need to know what is
> broken in my existing hardware! All indications I have, lead to the
> conclusion, that what I want to do with my Wallstreet under YDL 3.0
> should very well be possible, but some HW part regarding the clock
> syncronisation _must_ be defective! And this is what I would like to
> find out. Then I can replace that part and my life will be a lot easier
> ;)

I am not personally familiar with the Wallstreet so keep that in mind
during the following comments.

Is it possible that the battery that powers the PRAM is dead (not the
laptop bettery but a small battery that maintains the PRAM info even
when the laptop battery is disconnected)?

There was an earlier version of BootX that caused some systems to report
a much lower CPU speed, but if you have the latest BootX that shouldn't
be an issue.  It would also be useful to check /proc/cpuinfo to make
sure the CPU is being correctly identified (but I can't tell you what
the Wallstreet should report).

It could actually be a kernel bug, in which case using a newer (or older)
kernel might help (some Linux kernel code is modelled after MacOS X kernel
code).  Also I believe that some of the Linux timing info comes from
OpenFirmware settings so it could be a bug with OpenFirmware (which
would then require a Linux kernel hack/workaround to compensate for
it).  Another system setting that you could check that may be pertinent
is the timebase, which on my system is:

gwiz% od -tx4 /proc/device-tree/cpus/PowerPC,G4/timebase-frequency
0000000 017c0f93

Converting to decimal (first changing lowercase hex to uppercase hex):

gwiz% bc
ibase=16
017C0F93
24907667

I think that means I have a 25 MHz clock.  Again I don't know what the
equivalent Wallstreet parameter would be or what the correct value of
that parameter should be for a Wallstreet.  I do believe this value is
derived from either an OpenFirmware setting or the CPU type.

I hope something here may be of some help to you.  You might also want
to run a hardware tester like TechTools if you have it to verify correct
hardware operation.

						-Good luck

						-Bill