NTP questions, and fixing time for journalctl (on pogoplug4)

[RyanArr]

I am setting up a Pogoplug Series 4 on Arch and I have a few questions about time:

1) Is there any way to set a plausible time (doesn't need to be correct, just needs to be after the last shutdown and not in the future) immediately on boot so journalctl isn't out of order? I have a custom script called by net-auto-wired/ifplugd to set up the network. It logs some debugging info, but every log message prior to the network (and therefore NTP) coming up gets buried due to the incorrect time stamps.

2) Why does ALARM come with OpenNTP installed rather than the ntp.org ntpd? I assume there is a good reason (lightweight?) so I haven't switched, but I am curious. FWIW it appears that neither is in the default install of Arch on x86-64.

[WarheadsSE]

2) We use openntpd because it is lightweight, small, and works. We include it because many devices have no RTC, let alone a battery backed one, which is very contrary to x86 machines.

[pepedog]

I haven't got around packaging, but here is fakeclock
http://myplugbox.com/fakeclock.tar.xz

[RyanArr]

Thanks pepedog, your script works great. Once caveat though, is that if the system comes up after being down for less than 180 seconds (like after a reboot) openntpd won't fix it instantly.

Also, what is with the tar.xz extension? It seems to be a straight tar file.

[pepedog]

Well I think fakeclock would be used without any kind of ntp.
Who knows what went thru my mind 2 months ago? One hour ago is fuzzy.
Thanks vodka