ntpd fails to start, "Cannot find user 'ntp'"

[Klaus Alexander Seistrup]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:56:04 -0800, Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 04:47:35PM +0100, Claes Wallin wrote:
> 
>> Package: ntp
>> Version: 1:4.2.0a-11ubuntu2
>> Severity: grave
>> Tags: patch
>> Justification: renders package unusable
>>
>> For some unknown reason, ntpd.c gets null response from getpwnam(user).
>> *user is "ntp" and user ntp exists in /etc/passwd. A test program doing
>> the exakt same thing returns a valid passwd struct.
>>
>> A workaround is to put the parameter
>>
>> "-u `getent passwd ntp|cut -f 3 -d :`"
>>
>> in /etc/init.d/ntp-server, but the real solution is of course to find
>> out why a simple getpwnam call fails.
> 
> This is: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5399
> 
> and it is a strange one.
> 

I have already asked about this behaviour a few weeks ago.  On my box
it will happen on kernels 2.6.9 and 2.6.10, but not on 2.6.8. 
Furthermore, it will only happen when ntpd is being launched by init
or runsv, but not when launched by hand from a root prompt.

It shouldn't be a chroot problem since it also occurs when specifying
'/' as chroot directory.

-- 
Klaus Alexander Seistrup
SubZeroNet · Copenhagen · Denmark