Ubuntu nptdate can't find servers on boot

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1

Using RCN’s 13.10

I know there was some discussion of related issues quite a while ago, but I’m not finding an answer. The servers listed are all the ones in /etc/ntp.conf.

Unless I set the date manually the BBB thinks it’s Feb. after any reboot. What might I be missing?

From syslog:

Feb 18 16:01:53 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1162]: ntpd 4.2.6p5@1.2349-o Wed Oct 9 18:59:40 UTC 2013 (1)
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: proto: precision = 0.958 usec
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: ntp_io: estimated max descriptors: 1024, initial socket boundary: 16
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen and drop on 0 v4wildcard 0.0.0.0 UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen and drop on 1 v6wildcard :: UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen normally on 2 lo 127.0.0.1 UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen normally on 3 eth0 192.168.20.205 UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen normally on 4 usb0 192.168.7.2 UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen normally on 5 eth0 fe80::1eba:8cff:fe95:1a UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listen normally on 6 lo ::1 UDP 123
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: peers refreshed
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listening on routing socket on fd #23 for interface updates
Feb 18 16:01:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Listening on routing socket on fd #23 for interface updates
Feb 18 16:01:55 arm kernel: [ 39.789811] c_can_platform 481d0000.d_can can0: setting BTR=1c0a BRPE=0001
Feb 18 16:01:55 arm kernel: [ 39.870525] can: controller area network core (rev 20120528 abi 9)
Feb 18 16:01:55 arm kernel: [ 39.870672] NET: Registered protocol family 29
Feb 18 16:01:55 arm kernel: [ 39.928294] can: raw protocol (rev 20120528)
Feb 18 16:02:13 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host ca.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:02:14 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:02:33 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host us.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:02:34 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for ca.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:02:53 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:02:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for us.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:03:13 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:03:14 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:03:33 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:03:34 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:03:53 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:03:54 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:04:13 arm ntpdate[609]: Can’t find host ntp.ubuntu.com: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:04:13 arm ntpdate[609]: no servers can be used, exiting
Feb 18 16:04:14 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1
Feb 18 16:04:34 arm ntpd[1165]: Deferring DNS for ntp.ubuntu.com 1
Feb 18 16:04:34 arm ntpd[1660]: signal_no_reset: signal 17 had flags 4000000
Feb 18 16:04:41 arm ntpd[1165]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
Feb 18 16:04:56 arm ntpd_intres[1660]: host name not found: pool.ntp.org
Feb 18 16:04:56 arm ntpd_intres[1660]: parent died before we finished, exiting
Feb 18 16:05:01 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:05:21 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host ca.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:05:41 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host us.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:06:01 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:06:21 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)
Feb 18 16:06:41 arm ntpdate[1696]: Can’t find host 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org: Name or service not known (-2)

2

ntpdate-debian behaves the same way. Specifying a server on the command line does not work either.

3

Solved! (Partly)

I’m on a Windows domain, and it has it’s own time server of course. That was blocking access to any external time servers. However, while I can now do ntpdate from the command line with the local time server ip specified, I have to kill ntp first since it is using the same socket. I think this issue have been discussed in the past and I can probably find the answer with enough googling, but if someone wants to share the recipe that would be great.

4

Adding the ip of the domain time server at the top of the ntp.conf server list was sufficient. All working now.

5

I think it's basically because ntpdate tries to connect to the NTP
servers before the BBB has got its ethernet up and running using DHCP.

On my BBB running Ubuntu 13.10 I saw the same errors in syslog but I
installed ntp (or was it ntpd) in addition and it seems to be able to
get the right time now - though there are still errors in syslog after
boot where ntpdate and ntp can't find the ntp servers.

6

On Debian, what I did was make an init script to add a route to out gateway/router, and then called ntpdate in the same script right after. With Debian, you can order when these scripts ( services ) are run so they can be run during whichever time you prefer during the boot up process. In my own case, I just ran the script/service at the end of the bootup process.

With all that said, Debian uses a different ( default ) system-v type init daemon than Ubuntu. Ubuntu uses Upstart, which as I understand is similar but different. I have done enough reading to realize that using Upstart on Ubuntu could be made to do the same thing, but I have no practical hands on personally

Anyway, this is just one way I have figured out to do this one thing. While most definitely it is not the only way, and possibly not even optimal. But it worked for me…