time change - a warning

[seth at genome.wi.mit.edu (Seth Gordon)]

Warning: when Daylight Savings Time ends, if you set your computer's
clock back using Linux, the time on Linux may start acting strangely.

This is because the Linux does not entirely trust the clock built into
your computer's motherboard: it recognizes that the hardware may be
slightly slower or faster than the advertised speed, and so it
compensates for that when it keeps track of the time that the user
should actually see on the screen.  It changes the compensation factor
when the user resets the time.  So if you log into Linux and set the
clock back an hour, Linux will think that its hardware clock is running
too fast, and take appropriate action.

Read the hwclock(8) man page to see how to avoid this situation.  You
could, I suppose, just reset the clock from Windows or from the BIOS.

This was one of my first system administration, umm, adventures when I
set up my home Linux machine.

-- 
"Only a fool expects rational behavior from his fellow humans.
 Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have constructed?"
  --The Tao of Programming
// seth gordon // wi/mit ctr for genome research //
// seth at genome.wi.mit.edu // standard disclaimer //