[CentOS] Strange issue with system time being off

[Woodchuck]

On Thu, Aug 09, 2012 at 04:40:19PM -0700, Craig White wrote:
> 
> On Aug 9, 2012, at 2:26 PM, Russell Jones wrote:
> 
> >> 
> >> Here's a question: run hwclock, then, when you reboot, go into the BIOS,
> >> and see what the time is.
> >> 
> >>      mark
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks Mark. "hwclock" showed the right time before reboot. After
> > reboot, entering BIOS it still showed the correct local time. After
> > the server came up, "date" is slow by 5 hours.

Let's back up a bit.  I bet Mr Jones, the OP, is in the US central
time zone, which right now is 5 hours earlier than UTC.  I'm betting
the hardware clock is set to UTC, but that Centos believes that the
hw clock is set to local time, i.e. CST6CDT.  (That is how it would
be set for Windoze.)  There is some pitiful setting to correct the
Windoze problem, and it is being applied.  It shouldn't be.

Reboot, set bios clock to UTC.  Then track down wherever Centos
gets the idea that you have a dual boot windows machine whose clock
is set to local time, and whack that.

I'm reasonably confident that this is the problem.  The "exactly
five hours off" is what clued me.

I think some others up-thread have been hinting about this, at least
indirectly.

Dave
-- 
   The principles of accounting are not arbitrary. They are natural law.
                        -- Mencius Moldbug