Time setting on old machine with no clock battery

[Member davidrnewman]

I am trying to bring back into use some old Pentium machines donated to our local over 50s group.

AntiX core is small enough to run on them.

But the clock batteries have died, so I need to find a way to get ntp set up as soon as there is a network connection.

What is the best way to do that in AntiX 19? A script calling ntpdate after the network is up? Install and configure ntp? Install and configure chrony?

[Member Xecure]

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Hi.

From the top of my head, three options:
A. If you want the ntp automatic service, install ntp package and enable its service. Configure it (ntp servers and frequency) in /etc/ntp.conf

B. If you want a one-time script at startup (and the PCs are connected to the ethernet), you can add this command to /etc/rc.local so it is the last command that runs after all other services have loaded.
ntpdate pool.ntp.org

C. If setting up your network connection with connman, edit /var/lib/connman/settings

TimeUpdates=auto
TimezoneUpdates=auto
Timeservers = 0.us.pool.ntp.org,1.us.pool.ntp.org,2.us.pool.ntp.org,server,3.us.pool.ntp.org

You could also add the Timezone to make it faster
Timezone = Europe/Berlin
Check the best ntp mirrors and servers for your region here: https://www.ntppool.org/en/
This will check for the time every few minutes. More info in connmanctl man page.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Xecure.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member ModdIt]

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But the clock batteries have died,
in most machines old or new the BIOS battery powers the clock when no power is coming from the PSU. Up to now I have not
found any machine where tha battery was completely non replaceable/problem non fixable.
It can be a pain in those cases where the battery is enclosed in a
clock chip casing. As the battery also, again in most cases, gives the power needed to preserve BIOS settings it is pretty
inconvenient not to do an exchange. For many old batterys the biggest real problem caused is board damage due electrolyte leakage.

http://pc-restorer.com/replacing-cmos-batteries-in-old-pcs/
http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/dsrework.htm
may be of some assistance for you or others with same problems. Removing soldered RTC chips is not the easiest job and needs a
temperature regulated hot air gun to do safely. Easier but needs care, time consuming and dirty, use a dremel
to cut the pins free from the base of the chip then remove one pin at a time, fit a socket for the replacement chip.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by ModdIt.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by ModdIt.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by ModdIt.

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