ntpd does not sufficiently log failures

[Forest]

Binary package hint: ntp

I recently spent way too much time trying to figure out why ntpd was starting but not associating with any peers. In the end, I found out that ntpd doesn't write a log message when a dns lookup fails. It simply forgets the unresolved ntp server was ever listed in ntp.conf. Also, ntpd command line failures at boot time (due to rejected command line options in /etc/default/ntp) do not seem to get logged.

These problems were observed on Ubuntu Hardy, ntp 1:4.2.4p4+dfsg-3ubuntu2.

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Thanks Ill consider it for karmic + 1.

Regards
chuck

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

I know it's a long time, but I'm cleaning up old NTP bugs atm.

Also network time (by default is now handled by a systemd service)
But when using ntp you also get nice logs now, here an excerpt from journalctl when starting the service:

Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start NTP daemon...
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntp[10760]: * Starting NTP server ntpd
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntp[10760]: * start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo --pidfile /var/run/ntpd.pid --startas /usr/sbin/ntpd -- -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -u 114:120
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10769]: ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Fri Apr 8 20:58:07 UTC 2016 (1): Starting
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10769]: Command line: /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -u 114:120
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntp[10760]: ...done.
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp systemd[1]: Started LSB: Start NTP daemon.
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp polkitd(authority=local)[723]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:10738:283274 (system bus name :1.93, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8) (disconnected from bus)
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: proto: precision = 0.070 usec (-24)
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen and drop on 0 v6wildcard [::]:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen and drop on 1 v4wildcard 0.0.0.0:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 2 lo 127.0.0.1:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 3 eth0 192.168.122.158:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 4 lxcbr0 10.0.3.1:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 5 lo [::1]:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 6 eth0 [fe80::5054:ff:fed5:7b8a%2]:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listen normally on 7 lxcbr0 [fe80::5caa:6ff:fef9:ab95%3]:123
Apr 29 08:27:07 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Listening on routing socket on fd #24 for interface updates
Apr 29 08:27:08 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 78.46.37.9
Apr 29 08:27:09 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 144.76.172.53
Apr 29 08:27:09 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 129.70.132.33
Apr 29 08:27:10 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 5.45.100.114
Apr 29 08:27:10 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 188.40.99.69
Apr 29 08:27:10 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 46.182.19.75
Apr 29 08:27:11 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 217.145.98.135
Apr 29 08:27:11 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 78.46.93.106
Apr 29 08:27:11 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 5.9.65.75
Apr 29 08:27:11 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 109.239.48.152
Apr 29 08:27:12 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 144.76.4.122
Apr 29 08:27:12 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 195.50.171.101
Apr 29 08:27:12 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 178.63.102.198
Apr 29 08:27:12 xenial-ntp ntpd[10771]: Soliciting pool server 91.189.94.4

Apr 29 08:28:07 xenial-ntp dhclient[825]: DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.122.158 on eth0 to 192.168.122.1 port 67 (xid=0x349d878b)
Apr 29 08:28:...