RTC on BB Rev C

I am using Beagleboard Rev C4 with with no zippy board installed. I
installed a Battery to the board as described in the user manual which
included removing r66. Ubuntu 10.04.1 (ubuntu-10.04.1-r4-minimal-
armel used as described at http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu ) is
installed on the SDCard.

I removed fixrtc option from the setup_sdcard.sh and reinstalled by
running the modified setup_sdcard.sh.

No network is installed yet.

When the system comes up date reports: Wed Dec 31 19:00:22 EST 1969

sudo date -s "Wed Jan 5 23:32:50 EST 2011"

sudo hwclock -r
select() to /dev/rtc0 to wait for clock tick timed out.

sudo hwclock -rD
hwclock from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
Using /dev interface to clock.
Assuming hardware clock is kept in local time.
Waiting for clock tick...
select() to /dev/rtc0 to wait for clock tick timed out.
...synchronization failed

sudo hwclock --set --date "Wed Jan 5 23:38:37 EST 2011"
select() to /dev/rtc0 to wait for clock tick timed out.

reboot and when the system comes up date reports: Wed Dec 31 19:00:22
EST 1969 again.

Can anyone tell me how to access the RTC or where I can find an
explanation on how to get this working?