Time server sync errror on Debian with chrony instead of ntpdate

kyrkanisjomarken · June 15, 2024, 10:58pm

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version	Proxmox Debian Linux 12.5, Linux 6.8.4-3-pve on x86_64
Webmin version	Webmin 2.111
Installed chrony and uninstalled ntpdate, ntpsec-ntpdate, ntpsec-ntpdig and python3-ntp.
Got error on “Sync and Apply” in module “System Time” → Time server sync
" Unknown service : chronydsystemd-timesyncd"
systemd time-sync.target and time-set.target is active but unconfigured in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf. Package systemd-timesyncd is not installed.

stefan1959 · June 15, 2024, 11:13pm

Did you try to install systemd-timesyncd seeing it says its not installed.

apt install systemd-timesyncd

kyrkanisjomarken · June 15, 2024, 11:16pm

No because I’ve installed chrony as the time server and client. I don’t need two services.

stefan1959 · June 15, 2024, 11:21pm

Ok not sure then sorry, I normally stick to what the OS uses. Maybe someone else can help.

kyrkanisjomarken · June 15, 2024, 11:31pm

New proxmox installations use chrony as default, says upgrade notice. I am installing Proxmox 8 in vbox vm so i can check how they do on new installations. An earlier release-note for webmin says there is support for chrony.

stefan1959 · June 15, 2024, 11:42pm

You may need to contact Jamie how that change is done, sounds like Webmin is configured for the old time server, I can’t see any obvious way to change in the config.

Joe · June 15, 2024, 11:53pm

If you’re using chrony, don’t use the System Time module (which does not support chrony).

Joe · June 15, 2024, 11:55pm

To be clear, you don’t need the System Time module if you are using chrony. It doesn’t make sense to have multiple things trying to sync time. The System Time module configures a handful of common time sync options (and a very minimalist cron-based sync method), but chrony isn’t one of them.

Joe · June 15, 2024, 11:56pm

Oops. I lied. It actually does support chrony. Weird.

github.com

webmin/webmin/blob/61d20813716db54d88779b60a5145f51831fcaeb/time/index.cgi#L177


      
          		$ntp_support = 1;
          		print &ui_table_row($text{'index_addresses'},
          			&ui_textbox("timeserver", $config{'timeserver'}, 60));
          		# Show hardware time checkbox
          		if ($support_hwtime) {
          			print &ui_table_row(" ",
          				&ui_checkbox("hardware", 1, $text{'index_hardware2'},
          					$config{'timeserver_hardware'}));
          			}
          		}
          	if (&foreign_require('init') && &init::action_status('chronyd') > 0 && &has_command("chronyc")) {
          		my $chronyd_running = &init::status_action('chronyd');
          		my $chronyd_run_atboot = &init::action_status('chronyd');
          		my $ui_hiddens = &ui_hidden("sync_service_name", "chronyd");
          		$ui_hiddens .= &ui_hidden("timeserver", $config{'timeserver'})
          			if (!$ntp_support);
          		print &ui_table_row(&text('index_tabsync2', 'chronyd'),
          			$ui_hiddens.
          			&ui_radio("sync_service_status",
          			(($chronyd_run_atboot == 2 && $chronyd_running) ? 2 :
          			($chronyd_run_atboot < 2 && $chronyd_running) ? 1 : 0),

Joe · June 15, 2024, 11:57pm

But, I’m not sure where you’re getting chronydsystemd-timesyncd from. That’s not a default anywhere in Webmin.

Ilia · June 17, 2024, 12:13pm

The real issue is that the Chrony service is named differently on Debian systems. This will be fixed in the next Webmin release.

kyrkanisjomarken · June 17, 2024, 1:58pm

Thank you. I’ll disable scheduled time sync when I’ve installed the next release because I can’t do it now
/Tore

Ilia · June 17, 2024, 11:41pm

You can, in fact, use systemd-timesyncd on Debian systems instead of Chrony. You absolutely didn’t need to install Chrony on Debian.

If you want to sync time on Debian/Ubuntu, you can just run:

systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd

To revert it, you would want to run:

apt-get purge chrony
apt-get install systemd-timesyncd

@Joe, perhaps this is something we should do on EL systems as well? The package systemd-timesyncd is also available in EL and its derivatives.

Joe · June 17, 2024, 11:55pm

No! We already had this conversation, at least twice, maybe more. We should not be messing with people’s time package decisions. Every distro we support comes pre-configured with some kind of time. We should not override that. We don’t mess with people’s OS decisions, we only install the packages we need.

Ilia · June 17, 2024, 11:58pm

Thanks! I remember now! I incorrectly assumed that Chrony is a package we install. I checked yum-groups and we don’t.

So, all good!