shortening waiting time for ntpdate on bootup

[Alexander Oltu]

Dapper latest update (11/04/2006).
ntpdate 4.2.0a+stable-8.1ubuntu3

If interface
is not lo
AND
is configured as auto in /etc/network/interfaces
AND
internet connection absent
system boot up takes long time, waiting until ntpdate lookups time host.

To reproduce problem:
1. Comment DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf or comment gateway from configuration.
2. Stop networking /etc/init.d/networking stop or by ifdown command.
3. Reboot system or just stop-start networking by /etc/init.d/networking or ifdown ifup commands.

You will wait long time until network interface will be configured.

I suggest to put ntpdate process in background or using mechanism for checking if internet is available.

Like this if enough availability of DNS server:

--- ntpdate 2006-02-08 19:44:00.000000000 +0200
+++ ntpdate.new 2006-04-11 12:59:12.000000000 +0300
@@ -13,5 +13,8 @@
        NTPSERVERS="ntp.ubuntu.com"
 fi

+/bin/ping -q -c1 -W1 \
+ `/bin/grep -m1 "^nameserver" /etc/resolv.conf| /usr/bin/awk '{print $2}'` > /dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+
 [ "$VERBOSITY" = 1 ] && echo "Synchronizing clock to $NTPSERVERS..."
 /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s $NTPOPTIONS $NTPSERVERS || true

As for me is enough DNS server availability.
But in general I think we need to check $NTPSERVERS. Something like this:

/bin/ping -q -c1 -W3 $NTPSERVERS > /dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0

I putted 3 second here for TTL.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

ntpdate is run from an ifup script in dapper., which means nothing is waiting for it.

You may find that you are also experiencing bug #38787 which is why it's waiting at "Configuring network interfaces" rather than carrying on

[Alexander Oltu (sazs)]

This is not a bug #38787.
Why you a so sure that nothing is waiting ifup? Did you tried that steps to reproduce bug?

This is what I get without internet connection and default ntpdate:

# time sudo ifup eth2
Error : Temporary failure in name resolution

real 1m20.137s
user 0m0.017s
sys 0m0.025s

Please change bug status.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

This was a duplicate of bug 38787; in dapper the interface is brought up in the background and doesn't wait for ntpdate; the only reason you'd see a delay is because of 38787 which has now been fixed.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Note that it is DELIBERATE that ifup takes a long time if run manually.