From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 21 18:16:57 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1758216A41F for ; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:16:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from speedfactory.net (mail6.speedfactory.net [66.23.216.219]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0243443D53 for ; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:16:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from server.baldwin.cx (unverified [66.23.211.162]) by speedfactory.net (SurgeMail 3.5b3) with ESMTP id 2371900 for multiple; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:17:03 -0500 Received: from localhost (john@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by server.baldwin.cx (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id jALIGkck070379; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:16:47 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) From: John Baldwin To: Uwe Doering Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:49:00 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.8.2 References: <200511182215.04399.jhb@freebsd.org> <437F79F1.5040706@geminix.org> In-Reply-To: <437F79F1.5040706@geminix.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200511211149.01165.jhb@freebsd.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.8 required=4.2 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.0.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.2 (2004-11-16) on server.baldwin.cx X-Server: High Performance Mail Server - http://surgemail.com r=1653887525 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Charles Sprickman Subject: Re: 4.8 "Alternate system clock has died" error X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:16:57 -0000 On Saturday 19 November 2005 02:16 pm, Uwe Doering wrote: > John Baldwin wrote: > > On Friday 18 November 2005 10:05 pm, Charles Sprickman wrote: > >>I tried this query on -stable, hoping someone here can help me further > >>understand and troubleshoot this. > >> > >>Reference: > >>http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.os.freebsd.stable/32837 > >> > >>In short, top, ps report 0% CPU on all processes as of a few weeks ago. > >>"systat -vmstat" hands out the "Alternate system clock has died" error. > >> > >>Box is running 4.8-p24 and has been up 425 days. Nothing out of the > >>ordinary except for the above symptoms. In searching the various > >>lists/newsgroups, it seems that the other folks with this problem have > >>fixed it in various ways: > >> > >>-early 4.x users referenced a PR that was committed before 4.8 > >>-some 5.3 users reported this with unknown resolution/cause > >>-sending init a HUP was suggested (tried it, no luck) > >>-setting kern.timecounter.method: 1 (tried it, no luck) > >>-one user seemed to actually have a dead timer > > > > Actually, there was a patch that was committed in 5.4 and 6.0 for this > > issue. You can see the diff here: > > > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/i386/isa/clock.c.diff?r1=1. > >213&r2=1.214&f=h > > > > That patch would probably backport to 4.x fairly easily. > > I just looked at RELENG_4, and yes, backporting should be easy. Though > I haven't tried it yet on our machines. > > I wonder, however, what's writing to the RTC on a running server. Could > this event perhaps have been triggered by the recent Daylight Saving > Time switch? Yep. Also, if you are using ntp, then the adjustments to the time are getting pushed back to the RTC as well. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve" = http://www.FreeBSD.org