[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#574335: Bug#574335: ntpd shouldn't be started automatically

[Kurt Roeckx]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 09:05:44PM +0000, Bruce Cran wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 March 2010 20:54:21 Kurt Roeckx wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 01:33:59PM +0000, Bruce Cran wrote:
> > > Package: ntp
> > > Version: 1:4.2.4p4+dfsg-8lenny3
> > > Severity: normal
> > >
> > > Installing the ntp package results in ntpd being started at the end of
> > > the installation. This shouldn't happen because ntpd steps the clock
> > > forward or back and breaks certain applications such as dovecot that rely
> > > of a stable clock.
> > 
> > As far as I know, the installer already sets your clock before
> > it's doing any installation.  Ntp also doesn't get installed by
> > default as far as I know.  So I'm not sure what you think should
> > get changed.
> 
> I've had my system running for a few months (i.e. I was just installing ntp, 
> not the whole system), but today I realised I hadn't got ntp running on it and 
> that my clock was probably wrong. I ran "apt-get install ntp" and after 
> restarting dovecot when I realised it had stopped got a report that ntpd had 
> stepped the time backward 16 seconds. Dovecot hadn't know what to do, so it 
> stopped working.  I think it should be up to the user to decide how to 
> configure ntpd before it's started.

I have no idea how we can properly avoid that.  When do you think
would be a good time to reset the clock?  After a reboot?  I think
it's not very obvious that you'd have to start it manually or
reboot it after installation.


Kurt