Linux: concerns over systemd adoption and Debian's decision to switch

Thu Oct 23 23:01:16 UTC 2014

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Stephen Satchell wrote:
> On 10/22/2014 08:20 PM, Simon Lyall wrote:
>> On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Miles Fidelman wrote:
>>> And maybe, you should check out some of the upstream bug reports re.
>>> systemd interactions with NTP.
>>
>> If you think the current situation is all good then maybe you should
>> look at other bugs for ntp. eg this one I that affected me with Ubuntu
>> Disktop. They only run time syncing when the network is bounced so if
>> you have a stable network then your machine will never sync:
>>
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ntp/+bug/1178933
[..]
> I'm a long-time user of NTP, and what you are asking for is a no-good
> way of doing things.  What you are supposed to do is use the ntpdate(8)
> utility *ONCE* on boot to initially set the system clock, then you have
> ntpd(8) running to do two things for you:  sync up to one or more time
> sources, and discipline the local clock.
[..]
> That's the SERVER way of running a time synchronization.  So it would
> appear that you have a quarrel with GUI support, not with NTP itself.

What my point was is that the "simple default for end users" [1] is 
already significantly broken in Ubuntu (that is just one bug that bit me, 
there are plenty of others).

The systemd system seems to offer and improvement on the existing 
"simple default" setup while still enabling experts to run a full ntpd 
install if they wish.

[1] - I know how to setup and run ntpd, I didn't expect to need to do it 
on my workstation however.

-- 
Simon Lyall  |  Very Busy  |  Web: http://www.simonlyall.com/
"To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar