Re: ntpdate not working

[Connor McLaughlan <cont6pro3%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 1:44 PM Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 01:33:17PM +0100, Connor McLaughlan wrote:
> > ntpdate=YES is set in /etc/rc.conf, however on boot i don't see any
> > message regarding setting the time and the system time stays on a
> > wrong value.
>
> Probably it could not reach a suitable server.
> What happens if you manually run
>
>         /etc/rc.d/ntpdate start
>
> later?
>
> > >From my understanding if no option is given, it should read
> > /etc/ntp.conf, fetch probably 2.netbsd.pool.ntp.org and set the time.
>
> I don't think that is correct.
>
> > It works if i execute it directly:
> > bash-5.0# ntpdate 2.netbsd.pool.ntp.org
> > 25 Dec 13:09:37 ntpdate[1000]: adjust time server 79.133.44.136 offset
> > 0.072278 sec
>
> All my sparc64 machines have prettty good clocks even when the machine
> is turned off, so I don't take special care for initial time sync on
> them (but just turn on ntpd=YES in rc.conf). On other machines I avoid
> ntpdate and instaead run ntpd with ntpd_flags=-g (basically allowing ntpd
> something similar to ntpdate at first sync).
>
> Martin

Hi Martin,

i found the cause; there seems to be a problem within NetBSD 9.1

On a NetBSD 9.0 machine it works correctly and /etc/ntp.conf contains
at the end:
server          0.netbsd.pool.ntp.org
server          1.netbsd.pool.ntp.org
server          2.netbsd.pool.ntp.org
server          3.netbsd.pool.ntp.org

On NetBSD 9.1 /etc/ntp.conf contains:
pool 2.netbsd.pool.ntp.org iburst

But the script /etc/rc.d/ntpdate does not lookt for "pool" it still
looks for "server":

ntpdate_start()
{
        if [ -z "$ntpdate_hosts" ]; then
                ntpdate_hosts=$(awk '
                        /^#/                            { next }
                        /^(server|peer)[ \t]*127.127/   { next }
                        /^(server|peer)/                { if ($2 ~ /^-[46]/)
                                                            print $3
                                                          else
                                                            print $2 }
                ' </etc/ntp.conf)


So others should have the problem too?

Regards,
Connor