[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#408219: Bug#408219: ntpd giving up on eth0 before it is initialized

[Thomas Fritz]

I ran into the same problem. Here some more information.

On startup (boot process) of my Debian/Etch dhcp/ntp clients, the hook

   /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/ntp

gets called, (re)starting ntpd at a point in time (DHCP BOUND), when the
network is not configured yet. Some seconds later the init script

   /etc/init.d/ntp

attempts to start ntpd, but the start-stop-daemon just exits, since ntpd
is already running. Hence, ntpd stays in an offline state as Erik
explained.

On shutdown of the clients, the script

   /etc/init.d/ntp

stops ntpd, but it is (re)started again by the hook

   /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/ntp

some seconds later (DHCP RELEASE). Then the systems gets down.


This can be worked around by replacing the line

  invoke-rc.d ntp restart

with

  invoke-rc.d ntp try-restart

in function 'ntp_server_restart()' of the hook.

Now, when the hook is called on startup/shutdown it does not
(needlessly) start ntpd anymore, and the startup/shutdown behaviour is
controlled by the init scripts alone.

The general problem, however, remains. I.e., when restarting the network
on the client:

   # /etc/init.d/networking restart

   Reconfiguring network interfaces...
    There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 1687
   killed old client process, removed PID file
   Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
   Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
   All rights reserved.
   For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

   Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5
   Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5
   Sending on   Socket/fallback
   DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 172.20.1.6 port 67
   Stopping NTP server: ntpd.
   Starting NTP server: ntpd.
   Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
   Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
   All rights reserved.
   For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

   Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5
   Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5
   Sending on   Socket/fallback
   DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
   DHCPOFFER from 172.20.1.6
   DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
   DHCPACK from 172.20.1.6
   Stopping NTP server: ntpd.
   Starting NTP server: ntpd.
   bound to 172.20.1.9 -- renewal in 237 seconds.
   done.

then ntpd is left offline by the second stop/start of the NTP server,
because the network interface is not configured at that point.