Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 13:21:01 -0700 From: uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com To: freebsd-bugs Subject: bin/327: Clock management punishes you if CMOS != GMT FDIV020 Message-ID: <199504092021.NAA01474@freefall.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 9 Apr 95 14:10 CDT <m0ry2ND-0004upC@nemesis.lonestar.org>
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>Number: 327 >Category: bin >Synopsis: Clock management punishes you if CMOS != GMT FDIV020 >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: high >Responsible: freebsd-bugs (FreeBSD bugs mailing list) >State: open >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Sun Apr 9 13:20:59 1995 >Originator: Frank Durda IV >Organization: >Release: FreeBSD 2.0.0-SNAP950322 i386 >Environment: FreeBSD 2.0.0-SNAP950322 i386 >Description: [FDIV020] The installation procedure seems to be written assuming you are going to set the CMOS clock to GMT, which is the least likely time choice for PC users. This is because people who use the system for MS-DOS, Windows and other things on other partitions (or from floppy) must keep the clock correct to local time or those systems screw up. If they run certain networking software on those systems, all they have to boot and the CMOS is instantly changed to the correct local time, which can screw-up things under FreeBSD later. If you elect to keep the CMOS at local time, the installation will offer you cities (not many choices in CST by the way), then show you a time with the CST suffix, WITH THE GMT OFFSET ADDED even if you don't want it. It then asks "Is this what you wanted?". The normal user isn't going to realize that all the installation process is asking about at that point is the CST suffix and will answer the question NO because the time is wrong. The user has to answer that question yes and then select 98 (CMOS isn't GMT) later to end up with a correct time in FreeBSD multi-user mode.* This part of the installation is pretty user-unfriendly and needs improvement or at least better instructions. * Also note that if you have CMOS set to LOCAL, and boot the system in maint mode, the date shown is wrong (behind by several hours). If you change it to be correct, and then boot multi-user, the date is now ahead of where it should be by several hours. This is pretty confusing. >How-To-Repeat: Using CMOS setup, set CMOS to correct local time (or something non-GMTish if you happen to live in GMT), save, install FreeBSD, select LOCAL time. Now boot multi-user. Verify time is what you set CMOS to. Now halt and reboot single-user. Do date command and note that the time displayed is hours off (slow.) So, set time using date command to be correct. Sync. Now re-boot in multi-user mode and note that now time in multi-user mode is several hours fast of correct time and many more hours ahead of time just set in single-user mode. Now halt and run CMOS setup and see what the clock is set to compared to what you originally set. >Fix: Improve clock management for people who set CMOS to non-GMT, for people who can't afford an 100% exclusive FreeBSD system as they are likely to set the CMOS to the local time. *END* >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted:
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