ntpdate installed but time differs from nrc official?

[David Armour]

hello,

thanks for your reply, and for its promptness!
> On Friday 09 June 2006 00:27, David Armour wrote:
>   
>> hello,
>>
>> synaptic says that ntpdate is installed, but the time shown seems 'fast'
>> relative to the (canadian) national research council's official time
>> signal, by about six minutes! any ideas why this should occur?
>>
>> thanks for any pointers.
>>     
>
> ntpdate only synchronizes the clock when executed by script (e.g. at startup) 
> or manually.  I believe you want to install ntp-server and ntp-doc (for the 
> documentation).
>   
i installed both, and was mucking about in some of the documentation, 
when i happened to look under System>Administration> Time & Date.... duh.

unfortunately, once i'd selected 'synchronize with internet servers now' 
and watched my desktop clock changing back three minutes, i thought i 
might as well press the 'periodically synchronize with internet servers' 
button. unfortunately, that seemed to lock up the system, requiring a 
crtl-alt-backspace salute!

once back, and trying to select that text for this message, the time & 
date screen told me the ntp server was not installed and began to go 
through the motions of downloading and installing the same two files...

somewhat confused, if more accurate chronologically, in rainy langford, 
sir, i remain

yr grateful correspondent.