NTPD problem.
Hi,
I'm running a mixed testing/unstable Debian box, and I'm having issues with
ntpd. I have 3 us.pool.ntp.org servers in my /etc/ntp.conf file, but ntpd
doesn't seem to actually poll them after I start ntpd. I think it has
something to do with the fact that I'm using the default privileged port 123,
since if stop my ntpd daemon and use ntpdate as follows:
thoth:~# ntpdate us.pool.ntp.org
I get the following error message:
20 Apr 09:07:13 ntpdate[6036]: no server suitable for synchronization found
However, if I tell ntpdate to use an unprivileged port:
thoth:~# ntpdate -u us.pool.ntp.org
It successfully updates, as shown below (with obfuscated server name):
20 Apr 08:58:05 ntpdate[6035]: step time server x.x.x.x offset -0.854777 sec
Below are log entries from syslog showing how ntpd starts up:
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: ntpd 4.2.0a@1:4.2.0a+stable-2-r [. . .]
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: precision = 3.000 usec
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: Listening on interface wildcard, 0.0.0.0#123
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: Listening on interface wildcard, ::#123
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: Listening on interface eth0, 192.168.0.2#123
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: Listening on interface lo, 127.0.0.1#123
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: kernel time sync status 0040
Apr 19 13:16:50 thoth ntpd[2878]: frequency initialized 0.000 PPM from /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
And below is the result of an ntpq -p query I did this morning (with the pool
server names obfuscated):
thoth:~# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
==============================================================================
x.x.x.x .INIT. 16 u - 1024 0 0.000 0.000 4000.00
x.x.x.x .INIT. 16 u - 1024 0 0.000 0.000 4000.00
x.x.x.x .INIT. 16 u - 1024 0 0.000 0.000 4000.00
LOCAL(0) .INIT. 16 l 52 64 377 0.000 0.000 0.004
As you can see, ntpd hasn't polled any of the pool servers I've set up in
/etc/ntp.conf since I last started ntpd yesterday afternoon. Why wouldn't ntpd
be talking to these servers? I know my router is not blocking port 123, and my
ISP doesn't block any ports. I know traffic is getting out on other privileged
ports, since I'm using ssh and smtp to write and send mail.
Any insight is appreciated!
Scott Denlinger
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