On 11/05/12 11:39, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
"This is Ground control to Major Cron. Can you hear me now? Is there something wrong?"
Thanks for the smile that gave me!
Not an expert, but have you looked at /etc/ntp.conf?
Yes. Normally it works with the default servers, which are 0.debian.pool.ntp.org through 3.debian.pool.ntp.org. My "preferred" NTP server setting is uk.pool.ntp.org so I've just put that in instead. All of the servers have "iburst" appended which should make them more reliable not less, so I haven't tried removing that yet.
I've also just rebooted to see if that helps.
One thing I did notice was that the hardware clock was about 15 mins out, so I also updated that (hwclock --systohc --utc). If something was randomly alternating between system and hardware clock that would explain things but I don't see why that would happen.
Having looked further into this, I'm not sure that ntp is the culprit: it looks like ntp is running for "a while" then dying (signal 15) to be replaced by another ntp process, where "a while" is anything from a minute to several minutes. That explains why the clock "jumps" forward during the runtime of each ntp process (it's not jumping forward 15 mins, it's just running for 15 mins). But it doesn't explain the jumps backwards.
I note that there's nothing in the log to suggest that ntp is actually setting the clock either.
So I'm even more confused than I was!