NTPD Setup

I modified /etc/ntp.conf to point to the Purdue time servers - as I documented earlier. However, when I restarted the service, it was still talking to pool.htp.org. After a little looking around, I found that server name listed in /etc/ntp/step-tickers. I have no idea what that file is for, and there is no man entry, so I'm going to research.

(10 minutes later)*

I found this page that explains how to setup and use ntp and ntpd, but doesn't say much about step-tickers. A couple other pages I found instruct us to enter the same servers that we entered in the main config file in the step-tickers file, but they didn't say why (except for one that said it would not make big adjustments if my clock was 'screewed').

OK, I found something useful. According to this page, /etc/ntp/step-tickers is used by ntpdate to set the time when the process starts. It only runs if /etc/ntp/step-tickers is present. The author suggests that the startup script start ntpd using the -g option instead of ntpdate. This will let boot up continue while the daemon connects to the time server. Since I'm not that up on scripting, I'll update the file as suggested and leave the script alone for now.

I downloaded a program called Automachron and installed on my desktop. It is an NTP client that I pointed to the new server to get the time. Worked great.

*Sponge Bob fans will read this line in a very bad Jacques Cousteau accent.