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assisi / casu-beaglebone

A repository with a source code for Beaglebone Green used for CASU devices
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Fix date reset on Ubuntu Beaglebones #5

Open dmiklic opened 9 years ago

dmiklic commented 9 years ago

This will make logging a nightmare. Should be fixed ASAP!

thaus88 commented 9 years ago

As beaglebone does not have a RTC chip, it seems that two solutions are possible. 1) Install and configure ntp server on master workstation and configure beaglebone to update its date using the server from master workstation.

2) Add a RTC chip on the existing cape board, similar to: http://elinux.org/CircuitCo:RTC_Cape

dmiklic commented 9 years ago

Option 1 seems like an ok quick fix. However, this means that the board will boot with invalid time, and there will be a sudden jump in system time when ntp sync takes place. Do we expect any problems due to that (i.e. does the firmware rely on the clock value?)

But how come that the two bbones running Debian have RTC chips. Newer hardware versions?

thaus88 commented 9 years ago

Good question, already googled it but just couldn't find the answer. Rev. C (newer version) has some new chips, like CPU, but haven't found that it contains a RTC chip. I guess we would have seen a battery, which is necessary to power a RTC chip when external supply is unplugged.

When it comes to the firmware, we do not expect any problem with the solution no. 1.

thaus88 commented 9 years ago

If the solution of issue #6 means that beaglebones are from now on always connected to Internet, then this could be solved by just using ntpdate with some existing ntp server, such as at.pool.ntp.org

dmiklic commented 9 years ago

Kinda. As described in the official Ubuntu doc, the ntpdate program is installed by default and runs once at boot time. This means that the master workstation has to be online before any of the beaglebones are started. If this is the case, then the beaglebones will get the correct system time (I've just checked this). The guys in Graz have been warned about this.

I'll still leave the issue open, because a more reliable solution would be desirable.

dmiklic commented 8 years ago

@thaus88 @kgrip we need to buy and install batteries for the RTC chip on the cape!