Strange message of sys-whonix

[jamesferkin]

After the start of sys-whonix

Warning: Check Kernel Message Test Result: Remarkable kernel message found using dmesg [ 35.529062] clocksource: timekeeping watchdog: Marking clocksource ‘tsc’ as unstable because the sew is too large

Shutdown and restart it and doesn’t appear more

[torjunkie]

Hi jamesferkin,

This issue is already logged with Qubes, see here:

Issue: 'timekeeping watchdog: Marking clocksource 'tsc' as unstable, because the skew is too large' - may lead to connection and privacy issues

Short story: Don’t panic re: privacy. Marek advises/thinks that the error should only result in tiny skews in the order of milliseconds.

As for the clock skew, clock synchronization mechanism in Qubes is quite inaccurate. First of all, it has 1 second precision. But then it is
performed by:

1. Call date -u -Iseconds in dom0.

2. Pass the output to qubes.SetDateTime RPC service.

There may be arbitrary large time between those two, depending mostly on system load. In most cases it should be in order of milliseconds. Shouldn’t be a problem for any connectivity.

[jamesferkin]

Perfect, thank you