[Bug 1577596] Re: ntpd not started by systemd

[Paul Donohue]

I came across a box that was running Ubuntu 15.10 with ntpd.  systemd was automatically starting ntpd on boot on that system:
# systemctl status ntp
   ntp.service - LSB: Start NTP daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/ntp)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2016-04-24 14:48:26 EDT; 1 weeks 1 days ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ntp.service
           └─849 /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -u 106:115
Apr 24 14:44:41 host systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start NTP daemon...
Apr 24 14:44:41 host ntp[894]: * Starting NTP server ntpd
Apr 24 14:48:26 host ntp[894]: lockfile creation failed: exceeded maximum number of lock attempts
Apr 24 14:48:26 host ntp[894]: ...done.
Apr 24 14:48:26 host systemd[1]: Started LSB: Start NTP daemon.

After updating to 16.04 (ntp:amd64 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu8.2 -> 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5, systemd:amd64 225-1ubuntu9.1 -> 229-4ubuntu4, systemd-sysv:amd64 225-1ubuntu9.1 -> 229-4ubuntu4), systemd no longer starts ntpd on boot:
# systemctl status ntp
   ntp.service - LSB: Start NTP daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/ntp; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
May 02 23:22:37 host systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Start NTP daemon.
May 02 23:22:37 host systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Start NTP daemon.

** Also affects: systemd (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1577596

Title:
  ntpd not started by systemd

Status in ntp package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  After updating from 14.04 to 16.04 on a number of my systems, ntpd no
  longer starts at boot on any of those systems.

  `systemctl status ntp` shows:
     ntp.service - LSB: Start NTP daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/ntp; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  May 02 19:10:14 host systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Start NTP daemon.
  May 02 19:10:17 host systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Start NTP daemon.

  Manually starting it using `systemctl start ntp` works fine.  However,
  systemd does not seem to want to start it automatically at boot time.


  As best as I can tell based on trial and error, there is something
  special about the combination of the service being named "ntp.service"
  and the service depending on network.target.  However, I haven't been
  able to identify exactly what is causing this.

  If I copy the init script to any other name, everything works fine:
  cp /etc/init.d/ntp /etc/init.d/ntpd
  Edit /etc/init.d/ntpd and change "Provides: ntp" to "Provides: ntpd"
  systemctl enable ntpd
  # After a reboot, ntpd.service is started, but ntp.service is not.

  If I remove "$network" from the "# Required-Start: $network $remote_fs
  $syslog" line in /etc/init.d/ntp, then systemd starts it automatically
  ... But of course it is started before the network comes up, so it
  fails.

  If I replace /etc/init.d/ntp with a file containing only the following, systemd won't try to start it automatically at boot:
  #!/bin/sh
  ### BEGIN INIT INFO
  # Provides: ntp
  # Required-Start: $network
  # Required-Stop: $network
  # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
  # Default-Stop: 1
  # Short-Description: Start NTP daemon
  ### END INIT INFO
  echo "script was run" >> /ntp.log

  If I rename that same dummy script to /etc/init.d/ntp2, it is started
  automatically at boot.

  However, grepping the systemd source code and my systemd config files for ntp doesn't seem to find anything that might cause this behavior:
  /etc/systemd# grep -iR ntp *
  timesyncd.conf:#NTP=
  timesyncd.conf:#FallbackNTP=ntp.ubuntu.com
  /lib/systemd# grep -R ntp *
  system/systemd-timesyncd.service.d/disable-with-time-daemon.conf:ConditionFileIsExecutable=!/usr/sbin/ntpd
  system/systemd-timesyncd.service.d/disable-with-time-daemon.conf:ConditionFileIsExecutable=!/usr/sbin/openntpd
  Binary file systemd-networkd matches
  Binary file systemd-timedated matches
  Binary file systemd-timesyncd matches

  What else can I do to debug this further?

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