syntax error in /etc/default/adjtimex

[Hans-Peter]

Binary package hint: adjtimex

Hi!

A few days ago, I installed adjtimex and the installation/configuration routine reported a syntax error.
I still find the syntax error in the boot.log:

/etc/default/adjtimex: 8: Syntax error: ")" unexpected^M

This is how /etc/default/adjtimex looks like:

# /etc/default/adjtimex - configuration file for adjtimex(8)
#
# you may adjust these values manually or by calling /usr/sbin/adjtimexconfig
#
# This file is sourced by /etc/init.d/adjtimex
#
TICK=to
FREQ=override).

greetings
hp

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: adjtimex 1.28-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Apr 5 16:17:41 2010
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: adjtimex

[Hans-Peter (hanspeterg)]

BTW, I'm on lucid

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

This bug is a duplicate of #553237 - you probably have some BIOS settings enabled that interfere with ntp and adjtimex.
Please read the comments #11 and #12 for a solution. :)

[Paul Beardsell (paul-beardsell)]

Savvas very helpfully provides a WORKAROUND which works on some systems, not a solution. The solution is to fix the awk code. Preferably the sanity check should not exist at all in adjtimex so the easiest is just to REMOVE the unworking code rather than to fix it. adjtimex is supposed to work with really bad clocks. Bug still exists in Lucid.

[Paul Beardsell (paul-beardsell)]

Or, better, in the interim, while a proper fix is awaited, please just re-instate karmic's version 1.27 as the lucid version. That's the way to make Debian GNU/Linux work for non-tech non-geeks. Isn't that the aim of this whole Ubuntu thing?