Bug 444821

Summary:	Enabling "set date and time automatically" stops "ntpd.service" rather than starting it
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Alberto Salvia Novella <es20490446e>
Component:	kcm_clock	Assignee:	Paul Campbell <paul>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	normal	CC:	nate, nicolas.fella, plasma-bugs
Priority:	HI
Version:	5.22.5
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Manjaro
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Alberto Salvia Novella 2021-11-02 12:05:52 UTC

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
1. sudo systemctl start ntpd
2. systemctl status ntpd
3. Date & Time -> "Set date and time automatically"
4. systemctl status ntpd

RESULT:
"ntpd.service" has been deactivated.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Same the other way around: activating "ntpd.service" disables the box "set date and time automatically".

ROOT CAUSE:
In reality the box is only intended to sync the time once. But that's not what the wording suggests, neither it's the most functional thing to do. It should instead enable ntpd.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2021-11-08 17:53:22 UTC

lol can confirm!

Comment 2 Nicolas Fella 2021-11-08 21:28:07 UTC

What that checkbox does is control systemd-timesyncd (if available). Presumably systemd-timesyncd disables ntpd when activated since it would be a competing service

Comment 3 Nicolas Fella 2021-11-08 23:26:38 UTC

Sorry, slight correction to the above:

The checkbox uses the org.freedesktop.timedate1 interface (systemd-timedated) to control the NTP settings. This then activates the configured NTP implementation, which on Manjaro is systemd-timesyncd. So ntpd is still getting replaced in favor of systemd-timesyncd since that's what the system is configured to do

Comment 4 Nicolas Fella 2021-11-08 23:28:53 UTC

See https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-timedated.service.html for details on timedated and how to configure which NTP daemon is used

Comment 5 Alberto Salvia Novella 2021-11-09 18:16:22 UTC

Thanks for the info. Very valuable.