bug#31467: switching from ntp to openntpd, openntpd fails to start

bug#31467: switching from ntp to openntpd, openntpd fails to start

[Efraim Flashner]

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Currently `ntp' from `ntp' runs as ntpd:nobody, and `ntp' from
`openntpd' runs as root:root. ntp from ntp uses /var/empty as it's home
directory, which is owned by ntpd:nobody. When openntpd's ntp starts up,
it gives a permission error on its directory, /var/empty. When I changed
the directory's owner with `sudo chown -v root:root /var/empty' then
openntpd's ntp started working as expected.

Two possible solutions come to mind:
* Make openntpd run as user ntpd. This keeps the user separation
working, requires tweaking to openntpd's service (probably).

* Recreate /var/empty at boot, either as part of the start-up of
ntp/openntpd, or as a tmpfs. Neither ntp or openntpd store data that
needs to persist across reboots, so this might be worth doing anyway.
This would also prevent any suprises in the future like what I came
across.


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Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
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bug#31467: switching from ntp to openntpd, openntpd fails to start

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 10:38:21AM +0300, Efraim Flashner wrote:
> Currently `ntp' from `ntp' runs as ntpd:nobody, and `ntp' from
> `openntpd' runs as root:root. ntp from ntp uses /var/empty as it's home
> directory, which is owned by ntpd:nobody. When openntpd's ntp starts up,
> it gives a permission error on its directory, /var/empty. When I changed
> the directory's owner with `sudo chown -v root:root /var/empty' then
> openntpd's ntp started working as expected.
> 
> Two possible solutions come to mind:
> * Make openntpd run as user ntpd. This keeps the user separation
> working, requires tweaking to openntpd's service (probably).
> 
> * Recreate /var/empty at boot, either as part of the start-up of
> ntp/openntpd, or as a tmpfs. Neither ntp or openntpd store data that
> needs to persist across reboots, so this might be worth doing anyway.
> This would also prevent any suprises in the future like what I came
> across.
> 

I'm going to close this one. On my other Guix System machine /var/empty
is owned by root:root and it is using the default ntp client. I can only
assume that there is something specific about my own setup. If we get
another bug report about this then I'll look at it again.

-- 
Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
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