ntp not working

Question

Level 1

8 points

ntp not working

I have a 15-month-old MBP running 10.5.8. It is set to 'get date and time automatically" and has a wireless network connection (which I'm using to post this). But the system time does not seem to get updated. It doesn't change even if I manually set it to the wrong time and then reset to auto. Here are some consecutive system log entries:

Mar 24 20:29:33 jeera kernel[0]: System Sleep
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: Wake reason = EC LID0
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: System Wake
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: 5
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
Mar 24 21:18:36 jeera kernel[0]: NVEthernet::setLinkStatus - Valid but not Active
Mar 24 21:18:37 jeera kernel[0]: NVEthernet::mediaChanged - Link is down
Mar 24 21:18:37 jeera kernel[0]: NVEthernet::setLinkStatus - Valid but not Active
Mar 24 21:18:38 jeera kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:09:5b:a9:48:00 MAC AUTH succeeded
Mar 24 21:18:38 jeera kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en1
Mar 24 21:18:38 jeera kernel[0]: AFPSleepWakeHandler: waking up
Mar 24 21:19:45 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 24 21:19:49 jeera ntpdate[4218]: no server suitable for synchronization found
Mar 24 21:20:56 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd-wake[4194]): Exited with exit code: 1
Mar 24 21:23:35 jeera com.apple.service_helper[4230]: launchctl: Error unloading: org.ntp.ntpd
Mar 24 21:23:35 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 24 21:23:39 jeera ntpdate[4236]: no server suitable for synchronization found

System prefs are set to use time.euro.apple.com but the Apple US and Asian ntp servers don't seem to work either and also give "no server suitable for synchronization found" log entries. Little Snitch shows data being sent to and received from time.euro.apple.com. I have tried turning Little Snitch and firewall (including stealth mode) off, restarting, resetting PRAM - no effect. I have a white Macbook running 10.6.2 on the same network and it gets the time fine.

Not a critical problem but annoying - any help'd be appreciated. Thanks...

>1, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Mar 24, 2010 3:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

j.v.

Level 5

4,155 points

Mar 25, 2010 11:45 AM in response to imh10

try typing in one of the ntp servers listed here rather than those pre-populated on the pulldown menu list, and see if one of them works any better for you.

Reply

Answer 2

imh10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2010 2:15 PM in response to imh10

Thanks for this! I tried 130.88.200.4, and no dice - the log says

Mar 25 20:34:29 jeera kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en1
Mar 25 20:36:38 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd-wake[492]): Exited with exit code: 1
Mar 25 20:36:48 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 25 20:36:52 jeera ntpdate[521]: no server suitable for synchronization found
Mar 25 20:37:29 jeera login[524]: USER_PROCESS: 524 ttys000
Mar 25 20:38:24 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 25 20:38:28 jeera ntpdate[548]: no server suitable for synchronization found
Mar 25 20:38:39 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 25 20:38:43 jeera ntpdate[554]: no server suitable for synchronization found

With 130.88.203.12:

Mar 25 20:39:21 jeera kernel[0]: AppleFWOHCI_AsyncTransmit::waitForDMA - context not going inactive.
Mar 25 20:39:55 jeera /usr/sbin/ocspd[559]: starting
Mar 25 20:44:49 jeera com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd): Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
Mar 25 20:44:54 jeera ntpdate[581]: no server suitable for synchronization found

Both of these servers respond to pings. Most of the others in the list don't and I haven't tried them. (And no better with my ISP's ntp server (used by my router) last week.)

Just after the above, I tried some terminal commands:

ntpdate -q ntp.apple.com
server 130.88.203.12, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000
server 17.151.16.20, stratum 2, offset -0.597857, delay 0.20810
server 17.151.16.21, stratum 3, offset -0.598118, delay 0.20721
server 17.151.16.23, stratum 2, offset -0.597461, delay 0.20612
server 17.151.16.22, stratum 2, offset -0.597743, delay 0.20537
25 Mar 21:04:34 ntpdate[622]: step time server 17.151.16.22 offset -0.597743 sec

ntpdate -q 130.88.203.12
server 130.88.203.12, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000
server 130.88.203.12, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000
25 Mar 21:05:03 ntpdate[625]: no server suitable for synchronization found

ntpq -c peers
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
==============================================================================
immerse.mc.man. .INIT. 16 - - 64 0 0.000 0.000 0.000

I was using a VPN network earlier today, and getting the network time seemed to work! But only with VPN. I tried various other things but no improvement.

I did some tcpdumps earlier and it seems I was wrong in part of my question. In fact, outside VPN, it looks like data is sent to the server but nothing is received back. With the white macbook, packets are coming back with helpful time info. I can paste bits of this here if it'd help.

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 3

j.v.

Level 5

4,155 points

Mar 26, 2010 10:45 AM in response to imh10

I would once again try turning Little Snitch off and/or doublechecking its setting against the white Macbook's settings. Same for the Sys Prefs > Security > Firewall tab and make sure that "only allow essential services" is NOT checked and make sure those settings match across the two computers. I'm not certain if it would shed any light on anything but what if you ran a trace route from both computers to the ntp server? Is the MBP finding its way (or is the ntp server finding its way back)? Lastly, I guess you could always try the "grasping at straws" approach (one of my seemingly favorite troubleshooting methods 🙂 ) and reinstall the latest 10.5.8 combo update after verifying (and repairing if necessary) the boot disk and repairing permissions before and after.

Reply

Answer 4

imh10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2010 11:20 AM in response to j.v.

Thanks! I have now tried these - no joy.

There's no change with Little Snitch and firewall off. The network settings seem to be the same as on the white macbook. I reran the 10.5.8 combo update last night. This didn't change anything. However, I used the same combo updater I originally used, downloaded last Aug. The file is dated 5 Aug 2009. I notice from yr link that Apple now have a more recent one, dated about a week later. Perhaps I should try that one instead.

Traceroute to time.euro.apple.com seems similar on both machines. Here's the one from the MBP:
$ traceroute -P UDP time.euro.apple.com
traceroute: Warning: time.euro.apple.com has multiple addresses; using 17.72.255.11
traceroute to time.euro.apple.com (17.72.255.11), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 1589.796 ms 1.450 ms 1.433 ms
2 lo0-homesurf.pcl-ag01.plus.net (195.166.128.28) 29.073 ms 30.575 ms 29.567 ms
3 gi1-5-806.pcl-gw2.plus.net (84.92.5.69) 29.380 ms 28.345 ms 29.251 ms
4 te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net (212.159.0.190) 27.875 ms 28.540 ms 28.277 ms
5 vl23.pte-gw2.plus.net (212.159.4.28) 27.991 ms 28.435 ms 28.423 ms
6 linx-gw.uk.esat.net (195.66.224.65) 29.258 ms 27.192 ms 27.958 ms
7 pos4-0.core001.cwt.esat.net (193.95.131.13) 45.323 ms 45.085 ms 44.780 ms
8 vlan3.sw002.cwt.esat.net (193.95.129.19) 44.708 ms 46.255 ms 44.814 ms
9 vlan54.sw502.cwt.esat.net (193.95.130.162) 45.652 ms 44.570 ms 44.576 ms
10 ge5-1.sw532.cwt.esat.net (193.95.136.35) 44.933 ms 44.719 ms 44.132 ms
11 atandt-gw.sw532.cwt.esat.net (193.95.163.18) 53.031 ms 51.973 ms 52.267 ms
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
-- it went on like this to line 30 before I stopped it. On the white macbook lines 8-10 are a little different - it seemed to hit different machines - but the rest are the same.

I ran tcpdump for 30 mins or so on the MBP, opened the date & time preferences panel, and got:

$ sudo tcpdump -l -n -s 8192 -i en1 -p "port 123"
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on en1, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 8192 bytes
15:39:38.331572 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
15:40:42.331433 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
15:41:46.331477 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
15:42:51.331479 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
(another 18 lines like this...)
16:03:14.331575 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
16:05:21.331585 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
16:09:37.331586 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
16:18:11.331571 IP 192.168.0.2.123 > 17.72.255.11.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
^C
26 packets captured
5243 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

Absolutely nothing coming back. Doing the same on the white macbook gives this:

$ sudo tcpdump -l -n -s 8192 -i en1 -p "port 123"
Password:
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on en1, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 8192 bytes
18:51:31.719750 IP 192.168.0.3.62094 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv3, Client, length 48
18:51:31.774551 IP 17.72.255.12.123 > 192.168.0.3.62094: NTPv3, Server, length 48
18:51:34.951187 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:36.951085 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:38.951146 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:40.951049 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:42.951148 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:44.951083 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:46.951150 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:48.951171 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
18:51:50.951153 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
19:00:08.951142 IP 192.168.0.3.123 > 17.72.255.12.123: NTPv4, Client, length 48
^C
12 packets captured
7428 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

The first packet here is not from port 123. I wonder if that makes a difference.

It is most curious that everything is ok over VPN. Also I note that /usr/sbin/ntpd seems to be version 4.2.2 whereas on the white macbook (running 10.6.2) it is 4.2.4.

Any suggs most welcome. I'm probably getting too overwrought on this 😉 Maybe I should just wait until I can update the MBP to 10.6.

Cheers

Reply