ntpclient Blanks Screen

[SamK]

In bootlocal.sh the following command sets the system time correctly then blanks the screen:

Code: [Select]

# Set the system time (use with bootcode tz=GMT)
ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org
The behaviour is consistently displayed in FLWM and LXDE.

Any keystroke cancels the screen-blank and returns to the GUI interface.  Moving the mouse, stopping the movement, then moving again also cancels the screen-blank.

Any suggestions on how to remove the unwanted screen-blank?
 

[bmarkus]

Try this:

ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org &

[SamK]

Try this:

ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org &

Symptoms remain unchanged.  Also tried reordering other bootlocal.sh commands again symptoms remain unchanged.

[vitex]

In bootlocal.sh the following command sets the system time correctly then blanks the screen:

Code: [Select]

# Set the system time (use with bootcode tz=GMT)
ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org
The behaviour is consistently displayed in FLWM and LXDE.

Any keystroke cancels the screen-blank and returns to the GUI interface.  Moving the mouse, stopping the movement, then moving again also cancels the screen-blank.

Any suggestions on how to remove the unwanted screen-blank?
 

Does your configuration normally blank the screen after a period of inactivity?  The behavior that you describe could possibly be caused by the screen saver kicking in when ntpclient makes a large adjustment in the time.  (I have been unable to duplicate the behavior that you describe, so this is just a guess.)  I suggest that you insert calls to "date >>/path/to/some/file" before and after the call to ntpclient in bootlocal.sh so you can see how much of a step ntpclient is making.

You can also try chrony instead of ntpclient to set the time.  Chrony will slew (adjust incrementally) instead of step the time if the offset is less than 30 seconds; that default can be adjusted in /usr/local/etc/chrony/chrony.conf .

[SamK]

Does your configuration normally blank the screen after a period of inactivity?  The behavior that you describe could possibly be caused by the screen saver kicking in when ntpclient makes a large adjustment in the time. (I have been unable to duplicate the behavior that you describe, so this is just a guess.) [...]

Your guess gave me an idea.  Configuring the bios date and time to the correct settings at boot up prevents the screen-blanking.  The bios time was some hours out of sync with ntp server time.  Your guess was both inspired and correct. 

Many thanks

[SamK]

Having established that the screen-blanking is canceled by any keystroke, it may be possible to use this to cater for situations where the PC BIOS is subject to 'cumulative drift'.  In such circumstances the inaccuracy of the local time will become out of sync to the point where the threshold is reached that triggers the screen-blanking when the time is reset by the ntp server.

Is it possible to append a simulated carriage return keystroke to the end of the command in bootlocal.sh which runs ntpclient?  If yes, how is the keystroke command constructed?
 

[roberts]

You could, as I have already provided in Core, by using the TZ boot code and the getTime.sh script, the command hwclock to set your BIOS time.

Since you have chosen instead to use an extension to set the time, you still could call hwclock to write the time to BIOS.  See hwclock --help

[SamK]

Does your configuration normally blank the screen after a period of inactivity?  The behavior that you describe could possibly be caused by the screen saver kicking in when ntpclient makes a large adjustment in the time. (I have been unable to duplicate the behavior that you describe, so this is just a guess.) [...]

Your guess gave me an idea.  Configuring the bios date and time to the correct settings at boot up prevents the screen-blanking.  The bios time was some hours out of sync with ntp server time.  Your guess was both inspired and correct. 

Many thanks

Some additional information from further testing in FLWM with a large discrepancy between the BIOS time and the ntp server time:

• When time is set from bootlocal.sh the screen-blanking is observed
• When time is set from the Tools->Run_Command screen-blanking does not occur

   

[curaga]

Likely because of mouse moving, or the last enter press registering as an event.

[SamK]

Likely because of mouse moving...

I am reasonably sure it is not attributable to mouse movement.

...the last enter press registering as an event.

This may well be the case - hence my question on how to append a simulated carriage return keystroke to the end of the command in bootlocal.sh which runs ntpclient
   

[SamK]

You could, as I have already provided in Core, by using the TZ boot code and the getTime.sh script, the command hwclock to set your BIOS time.

Thanks for this information, I am already using the bootcode "tz=GMT" but was unaware of the availability of getTime.sh

A couple of questions...

I have attempted to run this from bootlocal.sh

Code: [Select]

/usr/bin/getTime.shbut the date and time are not reset to the correct values.  Entering the same command in a terminal does reset the values.

At a future point I may wish to direct TC to a LAN based time server.  Is this possible using getTime.sh?
  
Edit: corrected typo in command

[curaga]

xvkbd should be able to send simulated key events to the current window. Just might not work from bootlocal due to X security, other users can't access your display.

[SamK]

xvkbd should be able to send simulated key events to the current window. Just might not work from bootlocal due to X security, other users can't access your display.

I could not get it to work from bootlocal.sh.  Thanks anyway for the suggestion.
   

[SamK]

Reporting success...
Both getTime.sh and ntpclient work in conjunction with hwclock running from bootlocal.sh without blanking the screen.  The bootcode tz=GMT is used in both cases.

Code: [Select]

sleep 3 ; /usr/bin/getTime.sh ; /sbin/hwclock -w


Code: [Select]

sleep 3 ; ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org ; /sbin/hwclock -w

Both examples obtain the date and time is retrieved from an internet based server and used to set the BIOS date and time of the local PC.

The sleep command is used to ensure the network is available before attempting to get the date and time.  I would prefer to replace this with while...   but I don't know what to test for.  Can anyone suggest a valid while command?

At a future point I may wish to direct TC to a LAN based time server.  Is this possible using getTime.sh?

   

[curaga]

while ! ping -c1 google.com; do sleep 1; done

I think getTime.sh could be pointed to a local time server, but it would require a remaster. IIRC it also uses some other time protocol than ntp, not sure about that though.