time-admin asks to install ntp even when ntpdate is installed

[Onkar Shinde]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-tools

According to description of ntpdate, it is a client to sync time with time servers. This package is installed by default. But when I try to use 'Time and Date' administration UI to set the configuration to 'Keep synchronized with internet servers' first time, it asks me to install 'ntp' package. ntp package contains the network time daemon and is unnecessary for most desktop install.

And even though the ntpdate is installed by default, the configuration is set to manual instead of auto sync.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: gnome-system-tools 2.32.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.33-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Oct 2 11:26:39 2010
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release Candidate i386 (20100928)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-system-tools

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Wow, we make me worry for a few minutes... ;-) I thought you meant package ntp wasn't detected even when it was installed, which was fixed a few releases ago.

ntpdate is absolutely not taken into account, because it doesn't keep your cock in sync with network servers: it only synchronizes it when manually requested (i.e. by running ntpdate on the command line). From the package description:
 ntpdate is a simple NTP client that sets a system's clock to match
 the time obtained by communicating with one or more NTP servers. It
 is not sufficient, however, for maintaining an accurate clock in the
 long run. ntpdate by itself is useful for occasionally setting the
 time on machines that do not have full-time network access, such as
 laptops.

So I'm closing this bug: we still need to install ntp to sync time.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

My mistake. In future I will make sure not to report bugs in hurry. :-)