the laptop where time stops

[Mike Kallies]

On 3/30/2011 7:17 AM, Giles Orr wrote:
> pressed the key - and verified that the time on the laptop was two
> minutes slower than it should have been.  Apparently time stops during
> the break in music playback.

If a userland app is freezing the system clock, then it must be
something at kernel level.  Maybe roll back any kernel updates or module
updates, or... try a kernel update.  It's strange to me that the clock
would stop but the keyboard would still work.

Did you wait two minutes after the music stopped?  or did you wait two
minutes after the music started?

The only other things I can think to try to help diagnose this would be:
- a different music player
- external USB speakers
- disable the automatic power management features on the laptop,
including screen blanking and/or maybe your screensaver

Is it the power management screen blanking on your display or is it a
screensaver?  If it is a screensaver, does the screensaver use 3d?


Another thought... a lazy alarm to get the machine to do something
audible without the sound card might be to echo ctrl-G to the terminal
in a while loop with a sleep.  Using such an alarm instead of the music
would help narrow the problem down.

(Ensure the user running the cron has write access to /dev/console.)


#!/bin/bash
alarm=120
while [ "$alarm" -gt "0" ]
do
        echo -e "\a" >> /dev/console
        sleep 1

        alarm=$(( alarm - 1 ))
done


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