[CentOS] Strange issue with system time being off

Thu Aug 9 22:35:57 UTC 2012
Scott Silva <ssilva at sgvwater.com>

on 8/9/2012 12:33 PM Russell Jones spake the following:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am having an issue with some older CentOS 5.3 servers. Every time
> the server boots, it gives the error "Cannot access the hardware clock
> by any known method", and then promptly sets the time 5 hours behind
> the hardware clock, down to the second.
> 
> After the system is up. "hwclock" works fine. hwclock --debug does not
> show any error at all.
> 
> The hardware clock is configured in local time. /etc/sysconfig/clock
> is set to UTC=false and ZONE="America/Chicago". /etc/localtime is a
> copy of Chicago's zone file. /etc/adjtime is configured with "LOCAL"
> as the third row. I am at a loss as to what is causing this.
> 
> Any assistance is appreciated! Thanks!
> 
Since you say "servers" do you have one that you can bring more current then
5.3 to see if there was a kernel patch or something that fixed this? Between
5.3 and Current (5.8) anything could have happened.