Since this is a bit uncertain due to its nature, some log of the testing. # INSTALL # apt install chrony Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: chrony 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Need to get 203 kB of archives. After this operation, 509 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 chrony amd64 3.2-4ubuntu4.2 [203 kB] Fetched 203 kB in 0s (1422 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package chrony. (Reading database ... 39456 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../chrony_3.2-4ubuntu4.2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking chrony (3.2-4ubuntu4.2) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ... Setting up chrony (3.2-4ubuntu4.2) ... Creating '_chrony' system user/group for the chronyd daemon… Creating config file /etc/chrony/chrony.conf with new version Creating config file /etc/chrony/chrony.keys with new version Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/chronyd.service → /lib/systemd/system/chrony.service. Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/chrony.service → /lib/systemd/system/chrony.service. Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.3) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ... # Upgrade: The following packages will be upgraded: chrony 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded. Need to get 203 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 chrony amd64 3.2-4ubuntu4.2 [203 kB] Fetched 203 kB in 0s (620 kB/s) (Reading database ... 60023 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../chrony_3.2-4ubuntu4.2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking chrony (3.2-4ubuntu4.2) over (3.2-4ubuntu4.1) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ... Setting up chrony (3.2-4ubuntu4.2) ... locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.3) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ... # The boots I checked were all ok - "systemctl status chronyd" being ok, and "systemd-analyze critical-chain" did not show chrony up at the top. All looked more or less like this example: systemctl status chrony ● chrony.service - chrony, an NTP client/server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/chrony.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Thu 2018-08-23 07:19:51 UTC; 10s ago Docs: man:chronyd(8) man:chronyc(1) man:chrony.conf(5) Process: 694 ExecStartPost=/usr/lib/chrony/chrony-helper update-daemon (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 637 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/scripts/chronyd-starter.sh $DAEMON_OPTS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 693 (chronyd) Tasks: 1 (limit: 547) CGroup: /system.slice/chrony.service └─693 /usr/sbin/chronyd Aug 23 07:19:51 bionic-chrony systemd[1]: Starting chrony, an NTP client/server... Aug 23 07:19:51 bionic-chrony chronyd[693]: chronyd version 3.2 starting (+CMDMON +NTP +REFCLOCK +RTC +PRIVDROP +SCFILTER +SECHASH +SIGND +ASYNCDNS +IPV6 -DEBUG) Aug 23 07:19:51 bionic-chrony chronyd[693]: Frequency 6.084 +/- 80.863 ppm read from /var/lib/chrony/chrony.drift Aug 23 07:19:51 bionic-chrony systemd[1]: Started chrony, an NTP client/server. $ systemd-analyze critical-chain The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the "@" character. The time the unit takes to start is printed after the "+" character. graphical.target @6.345s └─multi-user.target @6.340s └─networkd-dispatcher.service @5.271s +1.067s └─basic.target @5.152s └─sockets.target @5.150s └─lxd.socket @5.111s +34ms └─sysinit.target @5.065s └─cloud-init.service @4.117s +945ms └─systemd-networkd-wait-online.service @2.197s +1.915s └─systemd-networkd.service @2.101s +84ms └─network-pre.target @2.094s └─cloud-init-local.service @350ms +1.741s └─systemd-remount-fs.service @233ms +92ms └─systemd-journald.socket @211ms └─system.slice @201ms └─-.slice @172ms