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I have been using Xubuntu 14.04 (32 bit) on an HP Microserver for two years and decide to add the 64-bit version of Xubuntu 16.04. It seemed to install successfully and indeed runs without any issue except that when it first booted, despite the 14.04 version having the correct date always, it started as Feb 11 16:28:10 (from syslog) I can change the date and time and it appears to be happy with that and the syslog entries now have the correct data and time but when I next reboot it's back to Feb 11. This is now set up as a dual boot with the 32-bit 14.04 but if I: 1) boot 14.04 after 16.04 (and have set the correct date in 16.04) the 14.04 sees the corrected date 2) boot 16.04 it always starts with Feb 11 3) boot 14.04 after 14.04 (with correct date) it starts with the correct date

In 16.04 I have also turned off the 'synchonise time/date from Internet' option but I do notice that messages like Feb 11 16:29:00 hp-64 systemd-timesyncd[504]: Timed out waiting for reply from 91.189.94.4:123 (ntp.ubuntu.com). are always in syslog.

The issue would appear to be that the software simply doesn't correctly read the hardware clock - but, of course, the 32bit 14.04 does ! (as did previous versions) /proc/cpuinfo says AMD Turion(tm) II Neo N40L Dual-Core Processor

with an AMIBios

I have the 14.04 on one HDD and the 16.04 on a second HDD - I was intended to switch over to 16.04 but now I'm not so sure ...

While it is to some extent a minor issue when 16.04 boots with the Feb date it does report (in syslog) that, e.g. /dev/sdb1: Superblock last mount time is in the future. which may have other ramifications.

Any suggestions ?

I have searched but the only things I can find are related to date problems when dual booting linux/Windows and this is not like those.

graham

graham
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  • What's the system in time in BIOS after startup? Does it exhibit the same issue? – David Foerster Jul 19 '16 at 09:23
  • I must admit to not having specifically checked the date in the BIOS but insofar that if I do not reset the date in 16.04 and then shutdown and boot 14.04, the 14.04 sees the Feb date when it loads it would suggest that 16.04 can successfully set the BIOS date. It 's just that it never seems to read it - and I've checked syslog and every time 16.04 boots it always at the same time, to the second. – graham Jul 19 '16 at 13:24
  • And thank you - I have just checked the BIOS and while the day and month are correct the year was 2099 ! And that wasn't me ! I genuinely do not know how nor when that happened but as I said the 14.04 and previous versions have always shown a correct date and so I has assumed (dangerous I know) that the BIOS date was the source of the date and was correct - obviously not. So this means that the 14.04 was getting its date from somewhere else or saving an offset from the BIOS date ? Now I have corrected the BIOS date 16.04 boots with the correct date. – graham Jul 19 '16 at 13:39
  • I have no idea what exactly the issue was here but I'm glad it worked out. I'll write an answer. – David Foerster Jul 19 '16 at 14:12

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You say that the system time (in BIOS) was set to the year 2099. This is likely to cause a lot of confusion to Linux.

Set the BIOS time and date to the current year and you should be fine.

David Foerster
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