ntp: not synchronized?

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

  I have the ntp running and see no error messages while it's running
but ntptime returnes error, the time is few minutes off and ntpdc says
'not synchronized'. How do I go about troubleshooting? any help
appreciated.

  another suspicious symptom is that there's nothing in
/var/log/ntpstats

  here's the relevant info:

  debian unstable, kernel 2.4.5
ii  ntp                                            4.0.99g-3
ii  ntp-doc                                        4.0.99g-3
ii  ntpdate                                        4.0.99g-3

--------------------------------------------------------------------
jojda:/var/log# ntptrace 127.0.0.1
localhost: stratum 16, offset 0.000039, synch distance 0.00172
0.0.0.0:        *Not Synchronized*
jojda:/var/log# ntptrace time.ultimeth.net
127.110.116.112: stratum 16, offset 0.000024, synch distance 0.00191
0.0.0.0:        *Not Synchronized*

--------------------------------------------------------------------
  cat /var/log/ntpd
 3 Aug 23:11:37 ntpd[4804]: frequency initialized -141.594 from
/var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
 3 Aug 23:11:37 ntpd[4804]: using kernel phase-lock loop 0041
 3 Aug 23:11:37 ntpd[4804]: system event 'event_restart' (0x01) status
'sync_alarm, sync_unspec, 1 event, event_uns
pec' (0xc010)
 3 Aug 23:11:37 ntpd[4807]: signal_no_reset: signal 17 had flags 4000000

--------------------------------------------------------------------
jojda:/var/log# cat /etc/ntp.conf 
# /etc/ntp.conf, configuration for xntpd

# erik: this should make ntpd log everything
logconfig all

# ntpd will use syslog() if logfile is not defined
logfile /var/log/ntpd

driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
statsdir /var/log/ntpstats/

statistics loopstats peerstats clockstats
filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable
filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable
filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable

# dead? server tick.koalas.com
server time.ultimeth.net

  TIA

	erik