Subject: Re: ntpd
To: Christos Zoulas <christos@astron.com>
From: Frank Kardel <kardel@acm.org>
List: current-users
Date: 10/13/2005 08:44:28
Christos Zoulas wrote:

>In article <oqvf023020.fsf@castrovalva.Ivy.NET>,
>Miles Nordin  <carton@Ivy.NET> wrote:
>  
>
>>-=-=-=-=-=-
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>>>>"mn" == Miles Nordin <carton@Ivy.NET> writes:
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>   mn> so, that feature is not working.  I checked FreeBSD, which is
>>   mn> also ntp 4.20, and it's broken over there, too.
>>
>>I checked a NetBSD 1.6.1_STABLE machine, which is ntpd 4.0.99i.  The
>>deferred name lookup feature _does_ work over there.
>>
>>I thought DNS was broken on that machine altogether, which was what I
>>was vaguely remembering, but it turned out the real cause was:
>>
>>restrict default nomodify
>>
>>in /etc/ntp.conf which did indeed made 'server <hostname>' not work at
>>all.  I added 'restrict 127.0.0.1 #empty restrictions' and both
>>nameservice and deferred nameservice retrying started working again on
>>NetBSD 1.6.  Adding the same line to NetBSD 3.0 doesn't help---you
>>only get one shot at nameservice, at startup.
>>
>>I noticed some other regressions between 4.0.99i and 4.20.  Here's the
>>full list:
>>
>>* ntpd_initres mechanism to keep trying failed DNS lookups brokehttp://bugs.ntp.isc.org/
>>    
>>
Yes it's currently broken in the ntp-dev very, but we like to have 
thatfixed - please file
a bug report with http://bugs.ntp.isc.org/

>>* ntpq does not do reverse lookup for the 'refid' field at all.
>>  There was some changelog to stop lookup for fake refclock
>>  127.127.x.x addresses, but it's not reverse-looking-up any
>>  addresses.
>>    
>>
>>* 'ntptime' no longer reports when ntp isn't working.  For example,
>>  when ntpd is not running at all, a NetBSD 1.6 system reports:
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
This may or may not be releated with the kernel - It needs to be sorted out.

>You should file PR's with NetBSD and the ntp people...
>  
>
Please be aware that the NTP project will start the release cycle for 
the next release of NTP V4.

There are still issues like the internal resolver issue that need to be 
fixed. As we are going into the
release cycle very soon now we very much appreciate if you all could 
check out the current
ntp-dev code and report all issues you find. The more issues we find in 
the release cycle the
better the port for ntpd will be in the released version. Things that 
should be checked for ntp-dev are:
compatibility with 1.6, 2.x and >=3.99.8(USE_FSETOWNCTTY not needed 
anymore). Things to look at
would include:
    autoconf
    working refclock support (that a hard one for poeple without the 
hardware 8-(
    64-bit correctness (at least working)

So if anybody could check the readyness of ntp-dev for NetBSD in 
addition to myself (I am just doing
-current on i386 and amd64) we would welcome the help.

NTP Project: http://www.ntp.org
NTP Public Services Project (reference implementation): 
http://www.ntp.isc.org
NTP Bug Tracking: http://bugs.ntp.isc.org/

Thanks for your support
    Frank Kardel (also kardel <at> ntp <dot> org )

BTW: shouldn't NetBSD upgrade to timecounters as found in FreeBSD and 
(as I am told) in OpenBSD?