Article 6097 of comp.protocols.time.ntp:
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From: rbthomas@frogpond.rutgers.edu (Rick Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.time.ntp
Subject: Re: XNTP & Solaris2.5
Date: 12 Jan 1996 12:11:47 -0500
Organization: Rutgers Engineering Supercomputer Lab
Lines: 69
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <4d64oj$cn2@frogpond.rutgers.edu>
References: <4cvcpk$ivr@nntp.interaccess.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: frogpond.rutgers.edu
Keywords: Solaris-2.5 XNTP errors
Cc: rbthomas@jove


Using xntp3 under Solaris-2.5, the "tickadj" program, which diddles with
variables in the running kernel under SunOS, can't do it's thing under
Solaris 2.5 for two reasons: 1) There is a "better" way to accomplish
this via the /etc/system parameter file, so you don't have to (and
shouldn't want to) do it the old way, and 2) Solaris 2.5 has renamed the
kernel file and changed some parts of the kernel-diddling-API, so you
couldn't do it the old way, even if you wanted to.

The solution is to throw away the reference to "tickadj" in
/etc/init.d/xntp (and the files in /etc/rc?.d that are linked to it)
(or wherever you initialize xntp when you boot your system)
and replace it with one (or two) change(s) to /etc/system.

The "dosynctodr" patch turns off the system's attempt to keep itself
in sync with its time-of-day clock (a battery powered digital watch
chip on the mother board.) without this, NTP will have to fight for
control of the system clock, so you get lots of "previous adjustment
did not complete" messages in your syslog file. With the patch, NTP
gets exclusive control over the system clock and all is tranquil.

The nsec_per_tick patch is to adjust for drift in the crystal
oscillator that controls the real-time clock.  It normally defaults to
10000000, which corresponds to 10 milliseconds per tick (ten-million
nano-seconds).  The exact value to use will depend on your particular
machine (and the temperature of your machine room). For starters, I
would leave it at the default value and only change it from that if the
drift value in the ntp.drift file gets out-of-hand.  In this case, you
will see "did not complete" messages, even with the "dosynctodr"
patch in place.


Rick

===============================================================================
The following appeared not too long ago in this newsgroup.  It gives the
details of the changes to /etc/system.
===============================================================================
From: schueman@access1.digex.net (Greg Schueman)
Date: 20 Oct 1995 10:34:54 -0400
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.time.ntp
Subject: Re: xntp 3.4x on Solaris 2.4.
 
In article <465q5q$238@larry.rice.edu>,
Arthur Darren Dunham <add@is.rice.edu> wrote:
>
>I did a build of 3.4x on a Sun SS1000 running Solaris 2.4.  I ran xntpd
>and noticed that the drift is around 100.  When I ran tickadj, it
>replied that there is no tick or tickadj kernel variable.  Is this
>something that I can fix?
>-- 
>Darren Dunham                                    add@is.rice.edu
>UNIX Sysadmin                                    Rice University
>(This line currently in revision)                    Houston, TX
>Any resemblance between real opinions and my post is coincidental
 
You will need to make changes to /etc/system, but I've noticed
on a SPARC 10 that physical temperature has a large effect on the clock's 
stability.  In other words, keep it chilled.
 
Set the following in your /etc/system file and reboot
* for NTP time sync
set dosynctodr=0
* NTP time sync stabilization (I'm not certain if this is the best value.)
set nsec_per_tick = 10000600
 
-Greg