[PLUG] Niggling time problem

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:47:47 -0800
wes <plug at the-wes.com> dijo:

> On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 9:32 AM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net>wrote:
> 
> > For some reason my laptop (Lenovo T61) does not sync its clock with the
> > internet servers. At the moment it has been up for a couple of weeks
> > and it is over one minute slow. My desktop uses the same settings and
> > it always displays the time correctly. Both are Intrepid x86_64. I know
> > the desktop is accurate because I compare it with an atomic clock that
> > is refreshed daily with the broadcast from Fort Collins, CO.
> >
> > The GUI stuff is not helping - that is, both computers show the same
> > settings. I need to figure out some command line stuff to sleuth it
> > out, but I have no idea where to start.
> >
> > I don't do anything with my computers that requires accuracy any closer
> > than getting me to class on time. It's just annoying. I use Linux. My
> > computers should be perfect.
> >
> 
> I have not yet figured out the correct solution to this either. I've been
> setting up ntpdate commands in root's crontab on all my servers. here's an
> example:
> 
> 0 * * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate time.mit.edu > /dev/null
> 
> this syncs it up every hour.

This gave me an inspiration and may have led me closer to a solution. 

First, I went into the System > Administration > Time and Date GUI and
discovered that I can put a tick mark in more than one server. So I
added a couple more. But time.mit.edu was not on the preordained list,
so I used the box in the bottom of the window to add it. Unfortunately,
when I clicked on Add it did nothing. Nevertheless, I now have three
servers checked, and I could add more.

Then from the command line I did this:

jjj at Devil7:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/ntpdate
[sudo] password for jjj: 
20 Dec 11:34:20 ntpdate[759]: no servers can be used, exiting

So the reason it is not updating is that it cannot find the servers. At
least I now know that it is set to use NTP servers. 

So then I went back to the GUI and put a tick mark in every server in
the US - 13 in all. Again I gave the update command, and again I got
the error message that no servers can be used.

Then I tried your command again, adding time.mit.edu, and got:

jjj at Devil7:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/ntpdate time.mit.edu
20 Dec 11:48:18 ntpdate[1386]: the NTP socket is in use, exiting

I don't know what that means. 

I could try Rich's suggest to set it to the deskop, but I doubt it
would work either. If it can't find 13 NTP servers because the NTP
socket is in use, it probably won't find the desktop either.