Ntpdate fails to start

[Roger Heflin]

Paul Smith wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Paul Smith <phhs80 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.

                                 Roger