Some x86 machines (e.g. the notorious DX79TO) have a BIOS bug that scrambles their time-stamp counter (TSC) even though their processor's TSC is otherwise reliable. This forces the kernel to use slower time sources, such as HPET.
tscfix attempts to work around this issue by re-synchronizing the TSC.
- Build and install tscadj
- Build tscfix (
make) - Run
tscfixonce to view tsc skew - Run
tscfix -fas root to attempt to correct the skew - Run
tscfixagain to verify that the skew has been eliminated. A few dozen cycles of skew is permissable. - Use
kexecto reboot your kernel without going through the BIOS:
kexec -l /path/to/kernel --initrd /path/to/initrd --reuse-cmdline --append tsc=reliable
kexec -e
(as root)