Cant get NTP service working on PI

Question

I've read a few posts on here about this and I can't seem to solve it. The NTP service will not start with my pi.

Model 4B Revision 1.2 (4 GB)

I'm in a situation where the pi is blocked from internet but we have some local time servers setup. When I manually run:

   sudo ntpdate -s 192.168.2.247

This works fine and updates to the correct time from our local server, but the service will not start with the pi booting and I cant figure out why.

I have disabled systemd-timesyncd

Output of status on ntp: sudo service ntp status

● ntp.service - Network Time Service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ntp.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-09-23 17:16:34 MST; 1min 32s ago
     Docs: man:ntpd(8)
  Process: 468 ExecStart=/usr/lib/ntp/ntp-systemd-wrapper (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 499 (ntpd)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ntp.service
           └─499 /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -u 111:116
Sep 23 17:16:34 allsky ntpd[499]: Listening on routing socket on fd #20 for interface updates
Sep 23 17:16:34 allsky ntpd[499]: kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized
Sep 23 17:16:34 allsky ntpd[499]: kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized
Sep 23 17:16:44 allsky ntpd[499]: bind(23) AF_INET6 fe80::af86:b202:dbb6:9953%2#123 flags 0x11 failed: Cannot assi
Sep 23 17:16:44 allsky ntpd[499]: unable to create socket on eth0 (4) for fe80::af86:b202:dbb6:9953%2#123
Sep 23 17:16:44 allsky ntpd[499]: failed to init interface for address fe80::af86:b202:dbb6:9953%2
Sep 23 17:16:46 allsky ntpd[499]: Listen normally on 5 eth0 [fe80::af86:b202:dbb6:9953%2]:123
Sep 23 17:16:46 allsky ntpd[499]: new interface(s) found: waking up resolver
Sep 23 17:16:49 allsky ntpd[499]: Listen normally on 6 eth0 192.167.1.52:123
Sep 23 17:16:49 allsky ntpd[499]: new interface(s) found: waking up resolver

Config file:

cat /etc/ntp.conf
# /etc/ntp.conf, configuration for ntpd; see ntp.conf(5) for help
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
Leap seconds definition provided by tzdata
leapfile /usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list
Enable this if you want statistics to be logged.
#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
You do need to talk to an NTP server or two (or three).
#server ntp.your-provider.example
server  192.168.2.248
server  192.168.2.52
server  192.168.2.55
server  192.168.2.17
#server 192.168.2.16
#server 192.168.2.247
pool.ntp.org maps to about 1000 low-stratum NTP servers.  Your server will
pick a different set every time it starts up.  Please consider joining the
pool: <http://www.pool.ntp.org/join.html>
pool 0.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
#pool 1.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
#pool 2.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
#pool 3.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
Access control configuration; see /usr/share/doc/ntp-doc/html/accopt.html for
details.  The web page <http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/AccessRestrictions>
might also be helpful.

Note that "restrict" applies to both servers and clients, so a configuration
that might be intended to block requests from certain clients could also end
up blocking replies from your own upstream servers.
By default, exchange time with everybody, but don't allow configuration.
restrict -4 default kod notrap nomodify nopeer noquery limited
restrict -6 default kod notrap nomodify nopeer noquery limited
Local users may interrogate the ntp server more closely.
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict ::1
Needed for adding pool entries
restrict source notrap nomodify noquery
Clients from this (example!) subnet have unlimited access, but only if
cryptographically authenticated.
#restrict 192.168.123.0 mask 255.255.255.0 notrust
If you want to provide time to your local subnet, change the next line.
(Again, the address is an example only.)
#broadcast 192.168.123.255
If you want to listen to time broadcasts on your local subnet, de-comment the
next lines.  Please do this only if you trust everybody on the network!
#disable auth

#broadcastclient

timedatectl status

               Local time: Fri 2022-09-23 17:21:14 MST
           Universal time: Sat 2022-09-24 00:21:14 UTC
                 RTC time: n/a
                Time zone: America/Phoenix (MST, -0700)
System clock synchronized: no
              NTP service: inactive
          RTC in local TZ: no

Thanks!

TLDR; "I have disabled systemd-timesyncd". Why did you do this? systemd-timesyncd is (or was when the question last arose) intelligent enough to make adjustments if it detected ntp was installed. REFERENCE. If that doesn't sort it out for you, please let us know & we'll take another look at your details. — Seamus, Sep 24 '22 at 00:40
I read on another post it had to be disabled for NTP to work. I guess that isn't right then. I'm just trying to get the system time to update from a local ntp server as it doesn't have access to internet. — Rankinstudio, Sep 24 '22 at 00:42
Two things: Thing 1: When you reply to a comment under *your* post (Q or A), you need to preface the cmt with the "handle" of the user you want to reach; in my case, that's @seamus - the autocomplete will help. Thing 2: Where did you see that post? AFAIK, the only report of an exception to that is if you build ntp from source (I've not confirmed that, but another user reported it). Anyway - let us know if that works. — Seamus, Sep 24 '22 at 00:50
@Seamus, I saw it here: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=266864 (from 2020). I was having this issue before disabling timesyncd, reenabled it, same issue. NTP service: inactive — Rankinstudio, Sep 24 '22 at 00:55
I'm confused... are you saying that you've installed NTP while systemd-timesyncd was installed & enabled, etc, and that it still doesn't start NTP? — Seamus, Sep 24 '22 at 01:02
@Seamus, yes. I just disabled systemd-timesyncd as part of the troubleshooting process. It has never worked right. I can force an update by stopping ntp service and doing sudo ntpdate -s 192.168.2.247, but that is the only way it will update the time. — Rankinstudio, Sep 24 '22 at 01:05

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 24 '22 at 05:55

1

These instructions seemed to fix the issue, npt starts with the pi and syncs time now:

sudo apt install ntp
sudo systemctl stop systemd-timesyncd
sudo systemctl disable systemd-timesyncd
sudo systemctl enable ntp
sudo systemctl start ntp

answered Sep 24 '22 at 05:55

Rankinstudio

111
6

Cant get NTP service working on PI

Leap seconds definition provided by tzdata

Enable this if you want statistics to be logged.

You do need to talk to an NTP server or two (or three).

pool.ntp.org maps to about 1000 low-stratum NTP servers. Your server will

pick a different set every time it starts up. Please consider joining the

pool: <http://www.pool.ntp.org/join.html>

Access control configuration; see /usr/share/doc/ntp-doc/html/accopt.html for

details. The web page <http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/AccessRestrictions>

might also be helpful.

Note that "restrict" applies to both servers and clients, so a configuration

that might be intended to block requests from certain clients could also end

up blocking replies from your own upstream servers.

By default, exchange time with everybody, but don't allow configuration.

Local users may interrogate the ntp server more closely.

Needed for adding pool entries

Clients from this (example!) subnet have unlimited access, but only if

cryptographically authenticated.

If you want to provide time to your local subnet, change the next line.

(Again, the address is an example only.)

If you want to listen to time broadcasts on your local subnet, de-comment the

next lines. Please do this only if you trust everybody on the network!

1 Answers1