Re: Using NTP

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Benny Siegert <bsiegert%gmail.com@localhost> writes:

> Am 23.11.24 um 02:38 schrieb Steve Rikli:
>> Your rc.conf settings look OK; this error from 'ntpdate':
>>    > Exiting, name server cannot be used: Temporary failure in name
>>    > resolution (2)/etc/rc.d/ntpdate exited with code 1
>> is most likely telling you that "2.netbsd.pool.ntp.org" is unable to
>> be
>> resolved. Often this is a DNS config issue, sometimes a problem with
>> your system's network config, or possibly the local network itself (e.g.
>> if your gateway is off-the-air or something similar).
>
> I was seeing the same on a Raspberry Pi with NetBSD recently. This
> happens because dhcpcd goes into the background while waiting for an
> IP address, so booting can continue. If the DHCP process is not done
> by the time ntpdate or ntpd start running, you will get this message.
>
> I solved it, by adding this line to rc.conf:
>
> dhcpcd_flags="-w"
>
> This will make dhcpcd block until it has an IP address assigned. Note
> that this means the boot will take a long time when there is no
> network for whatever reason.

I have also been seeing "daemons starting before IP address don't end up
in a happy state".   Arguably, they are buggy, but fixing is easier said
thana done.

The -w is appealing, but I also don't want it to block forever.  For
example, a home router/everything box, where one interface is getting an
address from the ISP.  If the ISP or the connection is broken, I still
want the machine to boot.  Even if some daemon is not happy.  But most
importantly I want to be able to ssh in locally.

So I would like something that says "wait, but only up to 60s, and after
that background while still trying".   But, reading the man page, it
looks like:

  there is already a wait of 30s, probably

  if the interface has carrier, then there is a lease attempt before
  backgrounding.


so it seems that you shouldn't need to do what you did.