Ntpdate fails to start

[Paul Smith]

On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 4:05 PM, Roger Heflin <rogerheflin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> At booting, ntpdate fails to start, and also the following command
>>>>>>> fails:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> # /sbin/service ntpdate start
>>>>>>> ntpdate: Synchronizing with time server:                   [FAILED]
>>>>>>> #
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The log messages are:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Sep  7 12:50:50 localhost ntpdate[2908]: the NTP socket is in use,
>>>>>>> exiting
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> service ntpd status
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Should show you that the ntp daemon is already running.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can't run both ntpd (the server) and ntpdate (the client) at the
>>>>>> same time.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks, Stuart and Edward. Got this:
>>>>>
>>>>> # /sbin/service ntpd status
>>>>> ntpd (pid 2059) is running...
>>>>> #
>>>>>
>>>>> ntpdate tries to start at booting. So, should I disable it? Which one
>>>>> of the two should I have running in order to have always a correct
>>>>> time on my computer?
>>>>>
>>>> either, but not both. I suggest ntpd, particularly if you run more than
>>>> one
>>>> machine. A local time server can be specified with the "prefer" (from
>>>> memory) option, and that will be used if available. See the man pages on
>>>> this. The nice thing about running your own server is that if your
>>>> network
>>>> connection drops your machines will all stay together, handy if you are
>>>> trying to match logs from one machine to another.
>>>>
>>>> If you run just one machine it probably doesn't matter.
>>>
>>> Thanks, Bill. I am running only one machine.
>>
>> How can I remove one of them from trying to start at booting?
>>
>> Paul
>>
>
> You may actually want both.
>
> On a typical setup ntpdate runs first (and exits) and syncs the clock close
> but not exactly on.   If this is not done and the time is off by more than a
> certain amount then ntpd *WON'T* be able to sync things, and will exit with
> an error.
>
> Then after ntpdate gets things close, then ntpd keeps things in proper sync.
>
> stop both ntpd and ntpdate, and then start ntpdate and then start ntpd and
> if both succeed things is likely correct and ntpdate runs and then exits.
>
> In F8 ntpdate is ran in the ntpd script to sync things in, and then ntpd is
> started, they could have separated it in F9.   The only way ntpdate would be
> sensible as a replacement is *if* something is running it every so often to
> keep things close, otherwise one the machine came up things would start to
> drift, and things would get worse the longer things were up.

Thanks, Roger. How can I check whether ntpdate is ran in the ntpd script on F9?

Paul