2.6.10 breaks ntpd?

energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

It seems that using kernel 2.6.10 breaks the ntpd. I've tried stock 2.6.10, 2.6.10-cko3 and 2.6.10-morph12. NTPD just won't keep syncing the clock, there are no error messages in any log files... This is very strange since I've used the same kernel config with 2.6.9-XXX and it works perfectly!

Any ideas? I've tried almost everything... anyone having the same problem? :roll:

pilla · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:40 pm Post subject:

I am not using ntpd, but my clock went to 7 o'clock sometimes. Just too weird.

I had to give up 2.6.10/11 because of problems with suspend and usb mouse too.
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energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

The ntpd is not the only problem, the clock starts to run "overspeed" e.g. after a day it is at least +20 minutes compared to real time. This problem came bundled with the ntpd problem...

toralf · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:25 pm Post subject:

I did not have any problems using the following kernels: linux-2.6.10-gentoo-r6 linux-2.6.10-hardened-r1 linux-2.6.10-r1
But be sure you did not have a line in your ntp.conf like:
restrict default ignore

drescherjm · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:23 pm Post subject:

markandrew · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:40 am Post subject:

two things i noticed about ntp recently:

1) i have 2 NICs, eth0 and ath0; ntp requires both of them to be active to start. apparently this will be be fixed in the next baselayout

2) i also could not sync today whatever i tried. i noticed that my /etc/ntp.conf file was being overwritten everytime i ran ntp, removing my server list. so i copied it from the one in /usr/share, added more servers, and removed all write perms on it. still didn't work. in desperation i disabled my ath0 NIC by removing the symlink net.ath0 -> net.lo in /etc/init.d/ ... now it works. strange huh?

JjcampNR · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:01 am Post subject:

I've also been having problems with a jumping clock, it's so damn annoying. I'm running 2.6.10-gentoo-r3. I'm going to try moving to r6 and see if that fixes anything.

--Josh
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energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

Anyone had luck finding the cause of the problem?

I wonder if it's a bug with certain chipsets or just an option with kernel that doesn't work in combination with other option(s)... I have a nForce chipset.

pilla · Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:04 pm Post subject:

has anybody tried 2.6.11-rc2?
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drescherjm · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:15 am Post subject:

I have the original AMD MP chipset on my dual processor TYAN Thunder AMD K7 2200 MP rig.
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AlterEgo · Veteran Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Posts: 1619

Try openntpd.
It's easier, and it behaves

on any kernel I've tried.

energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

Tried openntpd, tried about everything... for a moment I thought I found a solution but no.

If sync time manually e.g. "ntpdate tick.keso.fi" it works and clock is in sync. The ntpd itself finds the servers and keeps track of offset but just won't keep syncing. I used debug and log files reveal these errors for every server:

didl · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:14 pm Post subject:

I also had trouble with ntpd using 2.6.10. However, it turned out that
the problem was ntpd droping privileges from user root to ntp. I
was able to fix this via emerging ntpd with

sl70 · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 449 Location: Saitama, JP

I've also been having the same problem since about a month or so ago. I have no idea why it should have started all of a sudden.

Last week I uninstalled ntp and installed openntp. This seemed to work for a while but yesterday I started getting these messages in my log:

sl70 · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 449 Location: Saitama, JP

I upgraded the kernel to 2.6.10-r6 and now the clock is running right. I had a little adjustment of 0.7 sec when I booted up and ntpd started, but nothing since then.

Whew! Glad that's fixed.

energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

I tried 2.6.10-r6 and it didn't help, ntpd didn't work neither did the clock.
However I think I found out why.. there seems to be problem with nForce-
chipset and timer. With "working" kernel there are these messages at boot:

sl70 · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 449 Location: Saitama, JP

Ack. Posted too soon. I'm not getting those ntp messages anymore, but my clock is still running too fast. I guess all we can do is wait until a new kernel comes out.

pompafrittes · n00b Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Sweden

gtbX · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 126

I've been having this problem with all 3 of my gentoo boxes. The NForce1 box will run an hour fast after a week, while the PII fileserver will be an hour slow. My laptop is even stranger - after I bring it out of sleep mode, the clock is ~30 hours faster than it should be. All are running 2.6.10-r6 (except for the laptop, only going back to 2.6.9-r13 would fix it).

I was going to install ntpd as a stopgap, but this thread is making me think twice.

Legoguy · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject:

Try enabling the Power Management Timer Support in ACPI for the laptop.

Everyone else + the laptop: Try enabling Enhanced Real Time Clock in Device Drivers -> Character Devices. If it's already checked... then, well.. I can't really think what might be the cause of this (I don't experience it..)

pilla · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:28 pm Post subject:

has anybody tested 2.6.11 final?
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timmy · n00b Joined: 24 May 2002 Posts: 56 Location: Bath, UK

timmy · n00b Joined: 24 May 2002 Posts: 56 Location: Bath, UK

I've managed to get ntp working on my nforce2 machine: It seems my clock was running just too fast for ntp or openntpd to work.

The answer was to use /usr/bin/tickadj to reduce the tick (to 9935 in my case) as described here.

There's a post on gentoo forums here that has a patch for /etc/init.d/ntpd that will automatically apply and save the adjusted tick.

Tim

energy · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 25 Location: Oulu, Finland

Finally! Thanks to timmy I got it working using using tickadj.
Right value for me seems to be 9960.

But I really would like to know why this problem appears only
when moving to higher kernel version than 2.6.9? What did the
developers break this time?

kallamej · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:42 pm Post subject:

One of the problems with newer kernels is explained here. Tried to switch to openntpd, but it seems to just pick a random time stamp to send to the servers and doesn't sync either as described here, for instance. Back to 2.6.7...

Edit: The random time stamps is by design.
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