I have an iBook G3 and it has a problem setting the hardware clock.
Every time it is rebooted without the network cable plugged in the system clock is set to the hardware clock (Monday 04 Jan 1904).
This incorrect date is coursing problems with alot of things.

I don't care about having the correct date and time, I just want it to boot without the network cable plugged in and still work.

My plan is to run a start-up/shut-down script. On shut-down it will take the current correct date of the system, save it in a file then retrieve it at the next boot unless the network cable is plugged in, then it will get the correct ntp time.

I know this will make the date incorrect when the network is unavailable but at least the computer will work.

I am noob at scripting so much help appreciated.

#I run Ubuntu 6.06.1 with the Xubuntu desktop on an apple iBook G3 700Mhz (Duel USB)

p.s.
I have tried the Apple PRAM and PMU resets still date is stuck in the past.

I suggest you play around with this. There are lots of pieces to your solution and perhaps a simple answer. Why not enter

sudo date mmddhhmm

when you log in?

As to saving your last good date in a form that could be used by the date command later on here are some examples of saving and using the saved value to set the date.

#!/bin/bash

echo `date +"%m%d%H%M"` > last_good_date

As to setting your date string back

#!/bin/bash

exec 3< last_good_date

while read LINE <&3; do
date_str=$LINE
done

date $date_str

These represent two different shell scripts, which when saved, need to have execute permissions chomd +x <file_name>

As to whether the network is up, you could test the output of running ntp, and if is non 0, then you'd set the date.

Why is the hardware clock: "(Monday 04 Jan 1904)"? Is it broken?

Thanks for the replies. The hardware clock now seems to be working but as a precaution I have written a simple script to check the date.