NTP on the Touch

[jean2]

Since I upgraded to 7.7.1, a few weeks ago, my Touch was pretty much on time without the need for NTP. Then, last week, all of sudden, it lost 3 minutes. Time to reinstall NTP ;-)

I decided to update the tarballs with the latest fixes to the init file, all the rest remained unchanged.

If you use the pre-compiled binary, here are the instructions :

Let's push ntpclient to the Touch.
--------------------------
scp ntp.touch-3.tar.gz root@192.168.1.100:/tmp
---------------------------

Now, we need to log to the Touch and finish the installation
-----------------------------------
ssh root@192.168.1.101
cd /
tar -xvzf /tmp/ntp.touch.tar.gz
-----------------------------------

At this point, we need to edit the config file to set a proper NTP server. I personally use vi, you can also use any other means to do it. Worse case, move the file to the hard drive, access it via notepad over the samba windows share and put it back.
-------------
vi /etc/init.d/ntpclient
-------------

Now, just start ntp...
----------------
/etc/init.d/ntpclient start
----------------

If you want ntpclient to be automagically started at boot, you will need to modify /etc/init.d/rcS and add something like :
----------------------------------------
# Start Samba
if [ -x /etc/init.d/samba ]; then
/etc/init.d/samba start &
fi

+ /etc/init.d/ntpclient start &

# Start squeezeplay
/etc/init.d/squeezeplay start
----------------------------------------

Have fun...

Jean

[zeke46]

Before I decided to use your method I made a service request to Logitech support:
The answer I got was that the time is corrected every time the Touch is connected to mysqueezebox.com

As soon as you start to listen to your own music on a SD card (or USB stick) the Touch is disconnected from mysqueezebox.com and the time will start to differ.

I have installed your file ntp.touch-3.tar.gz on my Touch and I have also done the editing.

From now on my Touch is showing the correct time again.

The binary and the shellscript with the same name confused me at first, but I think I have found out how this daemon works.

I have been using unix and linux earlier and I know also that it is extremely dangerous to make changes in the system and also to copy and edit files in linux.

You can end up with a system that is not working at all.

I have not found out any way to backup the complete system on the Touch (tar to some device) before starting to make changes.

I am afraid that if the Touch users start making changes in the operating system it will end with a lot of NON-working Touches all around the world.

However, it looks like Logitech support is interested to know how this time correction method is setup.

I have provided Logitech support the link to your advise.

Do you know about ntp.org on http://www.ntp.org/ ?

Look at the section NTP Pool Time Servers.

ntp.org have servers for ntp all around the world that can be used.

I use
1.pool.ntp.org


Maybe one of the top ntp server could be included in your shellscript from the beginning, instead of the non-existing logitech ntp server?

[Mnyb]

Before I decided to use your method I made a service request to Logitech support:
The answer I got was that the time is corrected every time the Touch is connected to mysqueezebox.com

As soon as you start to listen to your own music on a SD card (or USB stick) the Touch is disconnected from mysqueezebox.com and the time will start to differ.

I have installed your file ntp.touch-3.tar.gz on my Touch and I have also done the editing.

From now on my Touch is showing the correct time again.

The binary and the shellscript with the same name confused me at first, but I think I have found out how this daemon works.

I have been using unix and linux earlier and I know also that it is extremely dangerous to make changes in the system and also to copy and edit files in linux.

You can end up with a system that is not working at all.

I have not found out any way to backup the complete system on the Touch (tar to some device) before starting to make changes.

I am afraid that if the Touch users start making changes in the operating system it will end with a lot of NON-working Touches all around the world.

However, it looks like Logitech support is interested to know how this time correction method is setup.

I have provided Logitech support the link to your advise.

Do you know about ntp.org on http://www.ntp.org/ ?

Look at the section NTP Pool Time Servers.

ntp.org have servers for ntp all around the world that can be used.

I use
1.pool.ntp.org


Maybe one of the top ntp server could be included in your shellscript from the beginning, instead of the non-existing logitech ntp server?

Touch has a feature, it has an overlay file system , so you can brick the software and just push the tiny button on the back a long time for a factory reset.
There are hidden parts of the files system you can't easily Touch even with root access , so you can always resurrect it from most normal user failures .
So a reset loads defaults of most files there is on it .
I've managed for example to turn of the wifi and then unsucesfully configure ethernet :P a long press on the reset button and it works again .

[cfuttrup]

Just so that future readers of this thread can be helped in the best possible way.
For the latest setups NTP is already installed in the Touch.

I have:
Player Model: Squeezebox Touch
Firmware: 7.7.2-r9663

On the Squeezebox Touch
Go into settings - advanced on the Touch itself and re-enable "remote login"
Notice the password provided to you

Run putty -ssh root@squeezebox (where squeezebox = IP address in your setup)
Enter the provided password

NTP is already installed ... type "ls -la /usr/sbin/m*"
There's msntp ...
You can (directly) execute /usr/sbin/msntp -r pool.ntp.org
The device time is updated.

/Claus

[Phil168]

Ah I see msntp is installed, but it doesn't quite provide the same functionality, since I don't want to ssh into my squeezebox and type a command everytime the time drifts.

This page: http://www.linuxcertif.com/man/1/msntp/

suggests one can start a daemon to do this automatically via the command:

msntp -a -x ntpserver.somewhere > output 2>1

--this does indeed seem to start a daemon. However I don't see how to make this run at boot time. Before (with the method of Jean, above) we added a command to /etc/init.d/rcS

However if I add:

msntp -a -x pool.ntp.org > output 2>1 &

or

/usr/sbin/msntp -a -x pool.ntp.org > output 2>1 &

to /etc/init.d/rcS (instead of /etc/init.d/ntpclient start &, that we had before) then it doesn't seem to work---i.e. there is no daemon running when I ssh in to check (via ps -e | grep ntp).

Just so that future readers of this thread can be helped in the best possible way.
For the latest setups NTP is already installed in the Touch.

I have:
Player Model: Squeezebox Touch
Firmware: 7.7.2-r9663

On the Squeezebox Touch
Go into settings - advanced on the Touch itself and re-enable "remote login"
Notice the password provided to you

Run putty -ssh root@squeezebox (where squeezebox = IP address in your setup)
Enter the provided password

NTP is already installed ... type "ls -la /usr/sbin/m*"
There's msntp ...
You can (directly) execute /usr/sbin/msntp -r pool.ntp.org
The device time is updated.

/Claus