Dual Boot - Time Sync Issues

[#1]

Just when I thought I finally had my Dual Boot deployment all dialed in.. I
ran into one final hurdle!

Has anyone else had issues with the clock being out of sync when switching
back and forth between Mac OS X and Windows Vista? (Both Operating systems
bound to AD)

I do have the Mac side pointed towards our district time server, and Windows
Œshould' pull from our AD server. The problem on the Windows side is that
since the system on boot is so far off on time, it never seems to sync with
the AD server. (Also locks non-local users out since there is no sync with
AD at that point).

I have run the AppleTime.exe as a startup service on the Windows side, and
also checked any other Time Zone settings I can think of between both OS's
and no luck.

I can go in and set both sides with the correct times and they will hold
hold for awhile (roughly an hour or so). But in any case, after some amount
of time the clocks get out of sync and then we have AD login issues on both
OS's.

I know there are quite a few of you guys out there running dual-deployment,
so have you run into this issue at all?

Thanks for any ideas!

-- Jason Weber
Technology Support Cluster Specialist
Independent School District 196

[ernstcs]

I sure have. Below is the email from my regional engineer. Since we aren't gung ho on dual boot I haven't gotten back around to check on it so use at your own risk I guess. =)

-- Forwarded Message --
Hi Craig,

I just came across this today...fyi...

I have worked with several customers experiencing this problem with clean installs of Windows and the Boot Camp drivers. The main problem is that Windows does not use Universal Time and Mac OS X does. The Boot Camp Drivers install a Boot Camp time driver in Windows, however I have found that it works inconsistently. I have not tried to "Unset the registry key," as Mike suggested. Perhaps that is all you need.

I have found rebooting in to Mac OS X can cause the computer to be somewhere between 4 and 17 hours off. During a restart Mac OS X does not force ntpd to run immediately. This happens some time well after the computer has restarted. To solve this I pulled together instructions I found on macosxhints.com and elsewhere. The first thing you want to do is set the ntp server to the same server in both Windows and Mac OS X. Typically, it is best to point it at the same ntp server the KDC is pointed at. Once that is complete the instructions are...

Dilemma: Rarely, but in some circumstances, restarting the system from a Windows Boot Camp partition causes the Mac OS X clock to be off by several hours, which results in authentication problems with Active Directory or Open Directory.

Solution (Mac): Per this hint <http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story070507030228844&query=boot%2Bcamp%2Btime> , set the system to force a network time lookup during startup:

1. 1.Download and launch Lingon <http://lingon.sourceforge.net/index.html> 2.
2. 2.Click "New," select Users "Daemons" and choose "Create" 4.
3. 3.Name it using a reverse naming convention (ie. edu.university.ntupdate) 6.
4. 4.Under "What" type "/usr/sbin/ntpdate -buv" without the quotes 8.
5. 5.Select "Run it when it is loaded by the system (at startup or login)" 10.
6. 6.Enter "/Library/logs/bp.log" without the quotes in the field "Run it if this file is modified:" This assumes you have Boot Picker installed on your system as the bp.log is the Boot Picker log. 12.
7. 7.Choose "Save" and type in your admin user name and password

note: these instructions are relevant to Lingon version 2.1 as steps may vary for earlier or later versions.

This assumes you're using Boot Picker. If you are not point to another log that will change during the boot sequence.

I have included these instructions and more on my web site, intended for customers, which is here...

http://web.mac.com/driley/iWeb/Tools.html

**

[macboy]

The fix is to go in on Windows side registry and Include this....

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTimeZoneInformation]
"RealTimeIsUniversal"=dword:00000001

This fixes the fact that Windows uses GMT and this makes it use UTC like the mac. You will not be able to log in using your AD account since it relies on your clock being in sync with AD server and it is way off. Took a while to find but there is info on it out there. I had same problem a while back but this fixed it when I did this to my Boot Camp image. That is why your mac side usually works fine with a local ID to log in. The clock will autofix itself once you log in if you have it syncing that way. Not so if using AD.

Hope it helps you out.

[tlarkin]

This is why we run our own internal time sync server so every client is
on the same page.

[ernstcs]

We do as well, but if the service doesn't get forced to check it...no love. =)

Craig E

[tlarkin]

Well under system preferences if I just point my OS X side to the time
server it always works and I do that in my master image. On the windows
side we have Novell push it out so whenever you log in, it gets pushed
out, or perhaps it is done by some other container unit not sure as I
don't manage the Novell side really.

---

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351

[#7]

We have a timeserver as well, and that alone didn't remedy the problem.

A few folks posted me a registry fix, so I have applied that a few
moments ago.

I'll check on it tomorrow morning and see how it all works out.
(Crossing my fingers!)

Thanks for all the posts!

Jason

[ernstcs]

I've found in OS X that even though it's pointed there, like you do and I do, in date and time, it doesn't update at start. Recent times it won't updated until I login with a local account, go to the system preferences, and open date and time...then it kicks off.

Craig E