panel time synchronization - SOLVED.

[wpshooter]

Is the time that is shown on the Linux Mint time clock on the panel ever synchronized with official time down to
the second and if so how often is this done or is the time that is displayed there strictly a function of the computer
systems/CMOS time ?

I see that there is an ntpsec-ntpdate application (which is not currently installed), do I need to install that to keep the time clock in sync ?

Thanks.

[billyswong]

Linux MInt 21.3 Mate/Xfce swapped out the ntpd that Mate/Xfce support, and put in place systemd-timesyncd instead. While this makes the time synchronization process equal across all 3 variants of DE, it makes the UI confusing as the GUI doesn't know the time is being synchronized to the internet.

In return command line programs that are systemd-centric are happy now. In particular timedatectl is reporting the synchronization status correctly.

[wpshooter]

Linux MInt 21.3 Mate/Xfce swapped out the ntpd that Mate/Xfce support, and put in place systemd-timesyncd instead. While this makes the time synchronization process equal across all 3 variants of DE, it makes the UI confusing as the GUI doesn't know the time is being synchronized to the internet.

In return command line programs that are systemd-centric are happy now. In particular timedatectl is reporting the synchronization status correctly.

Thanks for your reply, however, all that is Greek to me. I am just wanting to know how I can be assured that the time down to the second which is
shown on the control panel applet, is as close to EDST as possible.

P.S. - When I look at systemd-timesyncd on Synaptic package manager, it is there alright, however it is apparently not installed by default.

Looks like all that was required was to install NTP and its dependencies - wonder why that would not be installed by default ???

[billyswong]

Situation of Linux Mint 21.2 MATE or before:
ntpstat is NOT preinstalled. But if you open terminal and run command

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systemctl status ntp

there, you will see the service active/running.

Situation of Linux Mint 21.3 MATE as investigated from LIVE ISO:
ntp is NOT preinstalled. Instead what is running and active can be seen in terminal by

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systemctl status systemd-timesyncd

----

I haven't upgraded my own computer from LM 21.1 MATE so far. So I don't have 1st hand experience on what will happen for a computer upgraded from previous version into LM 21.3 MATE. But you can try the 2 commands above and see what is running in your computer.

If your computer is running "ntp", then the next thing for you to see more information is

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apt install ntpstat
ntpstat

which shall show you the current config and status of the ntp service.

If your computer is running "systemd-timesyncd", what you can run is

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timedatectl timesync-status

which shall show you the current config and status of the systemd-timesyncd service.

[wpshooter]

I installed NTP from Synaptic manager and wala, now the time in the time function on
panel application is in exact sync with the official EDST website.

I think I read that the default sync time is 10 minutes.
The clock gets off a second or perhaps just a fraction of a second in the 10 minutes but
once the 10 minute sync takes place it is back to being exactly in sync with EDST website.

Thanks.

[spamhog]

21.3 - XFCE Today I noticed the system clock was off and had been off for a while.

Clock right click - properties - time and date settings showed time setting was set to manual.

Which was coherent with clock not getting synchronized.

Attempting to set to sync complained that ntpd was not available, offered to install it, failed.

Tried timedatectl, reported no ntpd service, no sync.

Installed systemd-timesyncd.service, which was supposed to be installed and active.

(ntp - sntp weren't installed either)

The time and date setting still couln'd sync.

Tried timedatectl, still reported no ntpd service, no sync.

So, removed and purged systemd-timesyncd.service.

Installed ntp (ntpd, sntp).

The time and date setting was at this point already set to auto.

ntpq -p lists time servers

Now time is synced.

However timedatectl still reports no sync, no service.

Learned (tentatively):
- neither systemd-timesyncd.service nor ntp - sntp were installed -??
- installing systemd-timesyncd.service didn't start the service -???
- starting the service manually didn't work either -????
- the time and date GUI still claimed there was no sync service it could connect to
- purging systemd-timesyncd.service and installing ntp (incl. ntpd ntpq, dragging in sntp) did start ntpd
- the time and date GUI was found already set to sync and could switch between manual and auto

So:
- as noted in the thread, some GUIs are not up to date to sync being in systemd
- but neither service was found running or even installed
- installing the new systemd service went nowhere. there are likely bad configs somewhere that block it
- I suspect the GUI sets some config in ways incompatible with the new service
- purging the new one and installing the deprecated one worked

IT WORKS
BUT ntpd IS DEPRECATED
THE SETUP FEELS JERRY RIGGED

Questions:

Is there a set of packages and config files I should nuke and reinstall/regenerate to do a clean switch to the new service?

Is the time - date GUI to be avoided until further notice?

suggestions on checking if the bug in the GUI is already filed?

[billyswong]

...

@spamhog your situation seems similar to the bug report https://github.com/linuxmint/ubiquity/issues/73

Maybe you can share your situation there too.

About the GUI problem, after further searching, turns out the Time and Date GUI is from gnome-system-tools https://github.com/LStranger/gnome-system-tools

This project is originally a product of GNOME but what remains in Debian/Ubuntu repository is a fork after GNOME abandoned it. Probably because no new feature is needed for such old mundane functionality over these time, there has been no new commit in the Github page since 2012. I just filed a bug report there. Let's see if we can wake someone up.