On 12/20/2015 03:17 AM, Fabian Arrotin wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On 20/12/15 04:12, Robert Moskowitz wrote: >> Most armv7 boards lack a battery to maintain system time. On >> firstboot they come up a zero time. This results in the initial >> log files (and other key files) to have a zero date: >> >> # ls /var/log/ -lst total 260 84 -rw-------. 1 root root 82722 Dec >> 19 21:45 messages 8 -rw-------. 1 root root 4889 Dec 18 16:27 >> secure 16 -rw-------. 1 root root 14517 Dec 18 16:01 cron 4 >> drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Dec 18 00:38 httpd 24 -rw-------. 1 >> root root 19279 Dec 18 00:37 yum.log 0 -rw-------. 1 root root >> 0 Dec 3 09:07 spooler 0 -rw-------. 1 root root 0 Dec 3 >> 09:05 tallylog 4 drwx------. 2 root root 4096 May 28 2015 ppp 4 >> -rw-------. 1 root utmp 1152 Dec 31 1969 btmp 16 -rw-rw-r--. 1 >> root utmp 13824 Dec 31 1969 wtmp 4 -rw-------. 1 root root 200 >> Dec 31 1969 maillog 28 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 292292 Dec 31 1969 >> lastlog 4 drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 tuned 4 >> -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 120 Dec 31 1969 wpa_supplicant.log 4 >> drwxr-x---. 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 audit 8 -rw-r--r--. 1 >> root root 8180 Dec 31 1969 boot.log 24 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root >> 23322 Dec 31 1969 dmesg 24 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 23322 Dec 31 >> 1969 dmesg.old >> >> >> Logwatch will have problems with these files (or that has been my >> prior experience). I suspect other services will have problems >> with such 'old' files on the system. >> >> First we need to select the time management service: ntp or >> timesync (I think I got this service naed correctly)? > chronyd is the way tto go for el7, reason why I added it on the wiki > page > (https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32#head-d9feb4cde1956642a4a4e36b81a7e17b53a30805) > and it seems to work for me on a reboot : > > Jan 01 01:00:23 rpi2 chronyd[187]: System clock wrong by > 1450599058.242734 seconds, adjustment started > Dec 20 09:11:21 rpi2 chronyd[187]: System clock was stepped by > 1450599058.242734 seconds OK. that 'looks' good, but then chronyd needs to be in your base image so it is there for firstboot. Not 2nd boot, at best. ;) Time syncing is not a niceity on a batteryless Arm board like it is on a typical Intel board. Hopefully this occurs 'soon enough' that we do not have log files and others with bad dates. I will read up on chronyd to see if there is a way to seed it with a date from a file. But perhaps others here already know how to do this? > > > >> Fedora is using timesync and gets the current proper time from the >> network shortly after bootup. But there are some problems with >> this that are not so much an issue for a desktop, but are for a >> server. >> >> The firstboot timestamping problem I show above still occurs. >> Fedora has a later version of timesync that has this function. The >> version in Centos7 does not. What happens when a server restarts >> after a power outage, but before the external network access is >> available? For some time the system runs with time zero+. > True, as chronyd will need access to network (early in the boot > process , through systemd) for that change .. we can investigate > another way of doing that > >> Here is what I am thinking as the way to address this: >> >> The time services have the ability to read a file for a date hint >> if the date is less than some set time, or that is what I >> understand. So add to the centos-arm-installer script (to be made >> for the fedora-arm-installer script) a set to get the date from the >> installing system and pushing it into the proper place of the >> centos7-arm image. >> >> Now at first boot, the system SHOULD come up with this date which >> is at least a good start that will tend to not be too stale. >> >> Next this date file should be updated through some automatic >> process so in the event that a system is turned off then reboots, >> it comes up with a rather good start time. >> >> I don't know what would be a good way to do this on Centos7. I can >> search back in my various discussions on this subject on a couple >> of lists. But there are people here that I hope are better able to >> make the design decisions needed so that our Centos7-armv7 systems >> have good time. >> > Keep us informed ;-) I do tend to do that...