[K12OSN] kinit: clock skew too great

["Terrell Prudé Jr."]

Nils Breunese wrote:
> Terrell Prudé Jr. wrote:
>
>> Have you done your yum updates?  Have you also checked out that
>> you're using the new timezone info?  I know, possibly stupid
>> questions, but even on our network, I found a few stragglers last week.
>>
>> The following is pure conjecture.  If both servers are reading the
>> same time, but they're using different timezone info, that might be
>> an issue, since UNIX time is always with respect to UTC (same as
>> GMT).  That is, the timezone info that you pointed to during your
>> installation (e. g. EST5EDT) simply tweaks the *real* system
>> date/time setting to display to you, the human.  However, the system
>> itself is running on UTC.  I'm not sure if this is the problem, but
>> that's what I'd check first.
>
> It depends, during installation you get to choose whether you want to
> set your system clock to UTC or not.
>
> Nils Breunese.
>

I think you're referring to the oft-called "CMOS clock" in the BIOS. 

My understanding of it is the following.  The installation doesn't ask
you to *set* that BIOS clock to UTC.  Rather, it asks you if it's
*already* set to UTC or not, so the system knows how to adjust its
timezone info in software.  That's a bit different.  When GNU/Linux
boots, it does get its initial time setting from the BIOS clock.  But
after it starts up, the system doesn't ask the BIOS what time it is
anymore.  You're now depending totally on the software to set your time.

Someone, correct me if I'm wrong here.

--TP