New ntp install from tarball

Thu Dec 25 21:43:30 UTC 2014

On Thursday 25 December 2014 10:17:24 Tom H did opine
And Gene did reply:
> On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 5:54 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> > On Thursday 25 December 2014 04:28:05 Tom H did opine
> > 
> >> In the repo-provided ntp package, the driftfile can be set either
> >> via "-f /path/to/file" in "/etc/default/ntp" or "driftfile
> >> /path/to/file" in "/etc/ntp.conf", with the default being
> >> "/etc/ntp.drift" (unless Ubuntu patches in a different default).
> > 
> > Apparently they do, Tom, its in /var/lib/ntp/ as "drift".  Because
> > clock drift is usually pretty slow, I wrote a monitoring utility
> > several years ago, which does an hourly check, its output to a log
> > file generates this:
> > 
> > Thu Dec 25 09:55:25 UTC 2014
> > drift=-47.440
> > 
> >      remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay  
> >      offset  jitter
> > 
> > =====================================================================
> > ========= *juniperberry.ca 131.188.3.220    2 u  677 1024  377 
> > 111.393    1.867   1.631 +ntp.sunflower.c 132.236.56.250   3 u   43
> > 1024  377   55.996  -10.732   7.842
> 
> Ubuntu sets the driftfile via "/etc/ntp.conf":
> 
> # grep drift /etc/ntp.conf
> driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
> 
> What's this utility?
> 
~/bin/drift-checker,  attached.  I hope its not too big, 332 bytes...

> > Now I need to study the docs and see if I can reduce the server
> > loading by 2 or 3 machines by using this one as the local server. No
> > use wasting their bandwidth.
> 
> "server <local_server>" in "/etc/ntp.conf".
> 
> > Its also Christmas Day here in this time zone, so I hope everyone who
> > so freely offers their help on this list will have a most enjoyable
> > day with their families.
> > 
> > Have a Happy New Year too.
> 
> I'm at work with just one PitA colleague, whom I'm bccing on this
> email. :)
> 
> We celebrated with some Lebanese takeaway with a glass of red each. So
> it hasn't been an ALL-work day!

That is how it is supposed to work I believe if you are stuck working on 
THIS day. :)

> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too.

Thank you.

I think I have it working except I set this box up to broadcast, and put 
both my router, which supposedly has a server in it, and this machine 
in the ntp.conf list of servers.  By hostname since I don't use dhcp on 
my local net, but hosts files.

My script is listing this machine as a server, but the ipv4 address it 
shows is 37299% bogus.

From the lathe:
Thu Dec 25 20:56:30 UTC 2014
drift=172.971
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 router.coyote.d .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
+coyote.coyote.d 108.61.56.35     3 u  219 1024  377    0.119    0.449   0.678
*golem.canonical 131.188.3.220    2 u  124 1024  377  110.552   -0.619   2.490

From the mill:
Thu Dec 25 20:52:16 UTC 2014
drift=-61.925
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 router.coyote.d .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
*y.ns.gin.ntt.ne 200.98.196.212   2 u   46 1024  377   18.068   -1.031   0.128
+coyote.coyote.d 108.61.56.35     3 u   31 1024  377    0.135   -1.566   0.031

(which has been carving Mahogany for me most of the day)

In neither case would I consider this machine, shown with the bogus 
address, a stratum 3 server.  So there is a strange odor in this woodpile.

However the reported offset is good, and the drift seems fairly stable.

coyote.coyote.den is at  192.168.xx.xx, not 108.61.56.35, so I haven't the 
foggiest where that refid comes from, and I've not tripped over that in 
the web page docs.  What surprised me was the router being considered 
a stratum 16 reference.  Thats dd-wrt, and I may not have it properly 
configured.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS
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