[wpkg-users] WPKG doesn't launch on XP client PCs if the clock is wrong?

[Dave Ewart]

Hello,

Main issue
----------

I've been seeing some curious problems whereby the client-side of WPKG
does not appear to launch at boot-up on Windows XP machines if the XP
clock is slightly too slow!

I have been able to reproduce these problems several times and I'm very
sure that what I'm seeing is a real symptom:

- If clock is correct, or fast: WPKG launches at boot-up.

- If clock is too slow, say by 1 or 2 minutes, WPKG does not appear to
  launch at boot-up.

I am basing my statement that "does not appear to launch" on examination
of the Samba logs.  My WPKG files are stored in \\mysambaserver\wpkg and
when the clock on the client is slow, that share is never touched.  When
the clock is fast, or correct, that share is accessed and WPKG works as
expected.

Secondary issue
---------------

I am using NTP to keep the clients' clocks in sync; however I have
noticed that WinXP does not save its running/system time to the
*hardware* clock, if the difference between local (hardware) clock time
and the NTP server is 'small': 'small' appears to mean "less than 3
minutes".  This means that, even if the running clock gets corrected
gradually over the course of a WinXP session, it will still be wrong
*at* *boot-up* (it takes a few minutes to synchronize after boot up,
which is not "quick enough" for WPKG).  This appears to be the important
thing for WPKG, as described in "Main issue" above.  Obviously, this
"Secondary issue" is not a WPKG problem and I suspect that if I could
fix it, WPKG would work as I expect!

I've got reams of (Samba) logs which I could attach here, but I thought
I'd post this shorter report first, to see if there's anything that
someone can suggest at this stage, before I post lots of logs :-)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

Dave.

-- 
Dave Ewart
davee at ceu.ox.ac.uk
Computing Manager, Cancer Epidemiology Unit
Cancer Research UK / Oxford University
PGP: CC70 1883 BD92 E665 B840 118B 6E94 2CFD 694D E370
Get key from http://www.ceu.ox.ac.uk/~davee/davee-ceu-ox-ac-uk.asc
N 51.7518, W 1.2016


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