Description of problem: The NTP service should be installed and enabled by default in Fedora, at least in Fedora Workstation. Other systems have had time synchronization on by default for years, but whenever a Fedora system is installed, it's usually when I wonder why today's log messages seem to be missing from some log file that I realize that the system date and time is incorrect. Next step is "sudo -s" and "systemctl restart ntpd", which fails because for some reason Fedora does not ship with NTP, so I have to "dnf install ntp" followed by "systemctl enable ntpd". Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Fedora 28 How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install Fedora. 2. Realize date and time is wrong, especially when running in a vm (could be off by weeks after resuming vm). 3. NTP can't be started manually because it's not a service installed by default. Actual results: Internet time synchronization isn't available. The user is expected to manually set the date and time. Expected results: Internet time synchronization should be on by default, like on other systems. Additional info: Some other things that are expected to be on by default are missing too, like SSHD. Another example is sudo, which is example but not properly configured by default (the installer doesn't add the user to the wheel group), so those admin tools that open a dialog asking for root authorization (like firewall-config) can't accept the user's password. Naturally, this last point can be considered a matter of taste, so this is merely a suggestion. However, I believe that things like NTP and SSH should be available on Fedora, like on other Linux systems. People shouldn't have to manually adjust their system time nowadays.
Hello, Could you please attach logs from the installation. You can find them during installation in /tmp/*.log or in the installed system in /var/log/anaconda/*.log. Thank you
(In reply to Jiri Konecny from comment #1) > Could you please attach logs from the installation. You can find them during > installation in /tmp/*.log or in the installed system in > /var/log/anaconda/*.log. Those log files may be huge, what exactly should I look for? Also, if I may ask, what could log files from my test computer tell you about NTP not available on a default Fedora installation?
Your bug contains two issues which should work out of the box. First is that ntp doesn't work from installation. One problem is misunderstanding because Fedora for a last few releases doesn't use ntp but chrony which is newer implementation of NTP protocol. So or so it is strange that you don't have correct time set after the installation if ntp service was used there. You can check if chrony is installed by `systemctl status chronyd`. Second is that sudo is not working on created user. If you are using Graphical installation then in User creation spoke there is a checkbox to make user an administrator. That will add user to the wheel group and sudo should work. In case you are doing this already then we can have a bug in our code and we need to study logs to find the issue there. But first could you please verify the above?
Thanks for your answer. I don't remember that checkbox, so that part is probably my fault. Just as a suggestion, it should probably say that this checkbox enables sudo (the term "administrator" might not be clear) if it doesn't already say that. If it does, then please disregard this comment. So this bug report is about the first part, which is NTP or time synchronization. Indeed, I wasn't aware that Chrony should now be the default in Fedora. And I wouldn't mind that at all if it worked as Chrony appears to be better suited for workstations and laptops. However, it didn't work, the time was off and unfortunately, I couldn't find anything NTP related in the system settings. There should be some sort of settings GUI in the system settings that allows the user to check and enable time synchronization, but I couldn't find anything. I couldn't even find a settings dialog to change the time zone, there was just a very simple dialog to set the time manually. That was in Mate. I do remember that there used to be a tool called system-config-date but I can't find that in the repository. I did try to run system-config-date but it wasn't installed by default. Maybe it's obsolete, but a Fedora Mate installation should have *something* to configure NTP (and the time zone). I currently do not have access to the computer. When I get a chance or next time I install Fedora, I'll check if Chrony has logged something and report back. In the meantime, I can tell you that on *another* Fedora installation, the Chrony unit is enabled but "inactive (dead)", although I can't say for sure if it was like that before NTP was installed.
Created attachment 1489312 [details] user_spoke.jpg
Created attachment 1489313 [details] timezone_spoke.jpg
(In reply to Basic Six from comment #4) > Thanks for your answer. I don't remember that checkbox, so that part is > probably my fault. Just as a suggestion, it should probably say that this > checkbox enables sudo (the term "administrator" might not be clear) if it > doesn't already say that. If it does, then please disregard this comment. It should be called administrator because it adds the user to the wheel group which gives more privileges than just sudo, although the sudo is most significant one. However, I don't think we should explicitly mention sudo because the administrator term is used pretty often in linux world. See screenshot in comment 5. > > So this bug report is about the first part, which is NTP or time > synchronization. Indeed, I wasn't aware that Chrony should now be the > default in Fedora. And I wouldn't mind that at all if it worked as Chrony > appears to be better suited for workstations and laptops. However, it didn't > work, the time was off and unfortunately, I couldn't find anything NTP > related in the system settings. There should be some sort of settings GUI in > the system settings that allows the user to check and enable time > synchronization, but I couldn't find anything. I couldn't even find a > settings dialog to change the time zone, there was just a very simple dialog > to set the time manually. That was in Mate. > > I do remember that there used to be a tool called system-config-date but I > can't find that in the repository. I did try to run system-config-date but > it wasn't installed by default. Maybe it's obsolete, but a Fedora Mate > installation should have *something* to configure NTP (and the time zone). > > I currently do not have access to the computer. When I get a chance or next > time I install Fedora, I'll check if Chrony has logged something and report > back. > In the meantime, I can tell you that on *another* Fedora installation, the > Chrony unit is enabled but "inactive (dead)", although I can't say for sure > if it was like that before NTP was installed. Chrony should be automatically enabled in the installed system if it is used during the installation. You can enable NTP during installation in timezone spoke if you have working internet connection. See screenshot in comment 6.
So Chronyd is installed and enabled by default. I see that it's automatically stopped when I start NTPD now (which I installed), so I guess that's why I saw it being inactive at some point. I'm now assuming Chronyd was enabled at first, at least until I installed NTPD. So, to correct myself, Fedora does come with an NTP service by default. Why the time was off, I don't know. Time synchronization seems to be working now. Just a guess, the time offset may have been too large. To try Chronyd, I've disabled NTPD and installed Chronyd on another system. It didn't correct the time at all until I added this to /etc/chrony.conf: makestep 1 -1 Also, which gui tool are MATE users supposed to use to enable time sync or change the time zone for that matter? I saw your screenshot, but that's during the installation.
Chrony will change the time skew by slow convergence. It would most probably correct your time without the makestep configuration but it would take some time. For the last question, I don't know. You should ask on MATE channel on IRC or their forum. Thanks for your update, if I understand it correctly we can close this bug. I'm glad that your issue is solved.