Hello,

Problem:
Nothing happens when running hwclock --show

Errors:
Nov 8 11:05:16 node set_rtc_mmss: can't update from 52 to 5

hwclock version:
hwclock from util-linux-2.12

I noticed that I was getting a lot of errors in my logs like this:
Nov 8 11:05:16 node set_rtc_mmss: can't update from 52 to 5

I have a script that synchronizes the hwclock with the system clock every day. So this messages is most likely being generated by the script trying to run. I noticed that this error is generated because hwclock will not update the hour (as it was intended to do).

I ran sudo /sbin/hwclock --show and got the time back once that reported the system time being off by a little more than a day. However, every subsequent attempt to run sudo /sbin/hwclock --show gives me nothing at all. No error message, no time, nothing. I can run sudo /sbin/hwclock --set --date="CurrentDate CurrentTime", but again nothing is returned confirming this operation completed successfully and I can't run --show to verify. Nothing is generated in the logs.

Does this sound like a failing CMOS battery to you guys or could it be something else? Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help

An ordinary user is not supposed to run the hwclock utility (it's a root thing, thus sudo works).

It does sound a little like a failing battery if you get that much drift. Have you tried to set the time with ntpdate (as root)? Something like
might just do the trick.

ntpdate works fine. The system time is actually right because I am using ntp, but the script I mentioned before synchronizes the hwclock with the system time. I believe that is when the error is being generated, because the hwclock time is so far off from the system time. I tried running ntpdate again and then doing sudo hwclock --show and still nothing.

After you set the time, run either hwclock --hctosys or hwclock --systohc. Either one will make the changes.

I've done that also.

The problem is that sudo /sbin/hwclock --show doesn't do anything, don't get an error message, don't get the time, or anything at all. I have several identical computers and the only ones that I'm getting the error message set_rtc_mmss: can't update from 52 to 5 are the ones in which sudo /sbin/hwclock --show does nothing. Hence, I'm thinking if I can solve the problem of the hwclock --show then I will fix the problem with the errors being generated.

Replacing CMOS batter fixed problem