# Clock keeps resetting despite using ntpd

## audiodef

Why does my machine keep resetting the clock when I've set the timezone to GMT and use ntpd? It seems like after every update, I have to cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT /etc/localtime and restart ntp-client.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

audiodef, 

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT  ...   looks wrong. Unless you are in the GMT timezone and don't have daylight saving time.

Your BIOS should be set to UTC time and your timezone to <Continent/BigTown>

e.g. I sse Europe/London as I'm in the UK

----------

## krinn

as neddy forgot to tell you where :

```
cat /etc/timezone 

Europe/Paris

```

----------

## audiodef

See, the thing is, I want my machines on GMT anyway. That's just my personal preference. 

So if something's trying to match my "local" time zone, I want to turn it off.

----------

## krinn

```
/etc/conf.d/hwclock 

# Set CLOCK to "UTC" if your Hardware Clock is set to UTC (also known as

# Greenwich Mean Time).  If that clock is set to the local time, then 

# set CLOCK to "local".  Note that if you dual boot with Windows, then 

# you should set it to "local".

clock="UTC"

```

and i'm not sure /etc/timezone is still use, might be an error, sorry

----------

## NeddySeagoon

krinn,

/etc/timezone is the baselayout2 file for your timezone

/etc/localtime is the copy of your timezone file from /usr/share/zoneinfo/...

----------

## audiodef

I wonder if I've had this problem because I had clock_systohc="YES". I changed it to NO. We'll see what happens.

----------

## cwr

clock_systohc (if I remember it right) really ought to be defaulted to off.

The update path is NTP clock => hardware clock => system clock,

and the system clock shouldn't be used to source the hardware clock,

except on a specific NTP-sourced update sequence.

Will

----------

