Your message dated Wed, 5 Aug 2026 22:31:11 +0200
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: cinnamon: Network Time in Date and Time Settings only
works when ntp is installed
has caused the Debian Bug report #854099,
regarding cinnamon: Date and Time Settings --> Network Time fails (silently)
without installing ntp
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact [email protected]
immediately.)
--
854099: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=854099
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: cinnamon
Version: 2.2.16-5
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
* What led up to the situation?
My clock was displaying the wrong time.
* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
ineffective)?
First I set the Date and Time Settings to use Network Time, but it doesn't
work. It appears to work, but the next time you check the settings it shows up
as OFF again. Apparently it doesn't work unless the ntp package is installed. I
installed that and it worked.
I read online that some people thought adding ntp as a dependency was a bit
heavy for this, but as it stands the error causes this to fail silently (which
is very confusing). I think at minimum a box should appear when you try to
click Network Time ON, but I'm personally not sure how I could implement that.
I could certainly attach a patch adding ntp as a dependency, but I wasn't sure
if maybe the maintainers were purposefully leaving that off.
Thanks for your work for debian.
Cheers,
Thomas
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.6
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
Versions of packages cinnamon depends on:
ii caribou 0.4.15-1
ii cinnamon-common 2.2.16-5
ii cinnamon-control-center 2.2.11-4
ii cinnamon-desktop-data 2.2.3-3
ii cinnamon-screensaver 2.2.4-6
ii cinnamon-session 2.2.2-5
ii cinnamon-settings-daemon 2.2.4.repack-7+deb8u1
ii cjs 2.2.2-2
ii cups-pk-helper 0.2.5-2+b1
ii dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend] 0.22.0-1
ii gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0 0.6.37-3+b1
ii gir1.2-caribou-1.0 0.4.15-1
ii gir1.2-clutter-1.0 1.20.0-1
ii gir1.2-cmenu-3.0 2.2.0-3
ii gir1.2-cogl-1.0 1.18.2-3
ii gir1.2-gconf-2.0 3.2.6-3
ii gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0 2.31.1-2+deb8u5
ii gir1.2-gkbd-3.0 3.6.0-1
ii gir1.2-glib-2.0 1.42.0-2.2
ii gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 3.14.0-2
ii gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0 3.14.1-1
ii gir1.2-gtk-3.0 3.14.5-1+deb8u1
ii gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 1.6.0-1
ii gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-3.0 2.4.9-1~deb8u1
ii gir1.2-meta-muffin-0.0 2.2.6-4
ii gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0 0.9.10.0-7
ii gir1.2-nmgtk-1.0 0.9.10.0-2
ii gir1.2-pango-1.0 1.36.8-3
ii gir1.2-polkit-1.0 0.105-15~deb8u2
ii gir1.2-soup-2.4 2.48.0-1
ii gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0 0.99.1-3.2
ii gir1.2-webkit-3.0 2.4.9-1~deb8u1
ii gkbd-capplet 3.6.0-1
ii gnome-icon-theme-symbolic 3.12.0-1
ii gnome-session-bin 3.14.0-2
ii gnome-settings-daemon 3.14.2-3
ii gnome-themes-standard 3.14.2.2-1
ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.14.1-1
ii libatk1.0-0 2.14.0-1
ii libc6 2.19-18+deb8u6
ii libcairo2 1.14.0-2.1+deb8u1
ii libcanberra0 0.30-2.1
ii libcinnamon-menu-3-0 2.2.0-3
ii libcjs0 2.2.2-2
ii libclutter-1.0-0 1.20.0-1
ii libcogl-pango20 1.18.2-3
ii libcogl-path20 1.18.2-3
ii libcogl20 1.18.2-3
ii libcroco3 0.6.8-3+b1
ii libdbus-glib-1-2 0.102-1
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.31.1-2+deb8u5
ii libgirepository-1.0-1 1.42.0-2.2
ii libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1] 10.3.2-1+deb8u1
ii libglib2.0-0 2.42.1-1+b1
ii libgstreamer1.0-0 1.4.4-2
ii libgtk-3-0 3.14.5-1+deb8u1
ii libjs-jquery 1.7.2+dfsg-3.2
ii libmozjs185-1.0 1.8.5-1.0.0+dfsg-4.3
ii libmuffin0 2.2.6-4
ii libpango-1.0-0 1.36.8-3
ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.36.8-3
ii libpulse-mainloop-glib0 5.0-13
ii libpulse0 5.0-13
ii libstartup-notification0 0.12-4
ii libx11-6 2:1.6.2-3
ii libxfixes3 1:5.0.1-2+b2
ii libxml2 2.9.1+dfsg1-5+deb8u4
ii mesa-utils 8.2.0-1
ii multiarch-support 2.19-18+deb8u6
ii nemo 2.2.4-2
ii network-manager-gnome 0.9.10.0-2
ii policykit-1-gnome 0.105-2
ii python-dbus 1.2.0-2+b3
ii python-gconf 2.28.1+dfsg-1.1
ii python-gi-cairo 3.14.0-1
ii python-imaging 2.6.1-2+deb8u3
ii python-lxml 3.4.0-1
ii python-pam 0.4.2-13.1
ii python-pexpect 3.2-1
ii python-pyinotify 0.9.4-1
pn python:any <none>
Versions of packages cinnamon recommends:
ii cinnamon-l10n 2.2.4-1
ii gksu 2.0.2-9
ii gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator] 3.14.1-1+deb8u1thomas-autohide-off1
Versions of packages cinnamon suggests:
pn python-opencv <none>
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Hi Thomas,
thanks for the report, and sorry for the very long delay.
I'm closing this bug because the situation it describes no longer
applies: both the premise and the code it was filed against are gone.
On the packaging side, adding ntp as a dependency is not an option
anymore, and it would not be the right fix either:
- the ntp package no longer exists in unstable, it has been replaced
by ntpsec;
- systemd already carries "Recommends: systemd-timesyncd | time-daemon",
so on a default installation a time synchronization service is always
present, and pulling in a full NTP daemon from a desktop package would
be wrong when timesyncd is enough.
On the code side, the Date & Time panel you reported against was the C
panel in cinnamon-control-center, which no longer exists. Since Cinnamon
4.4 the settings live in cinnamon-settings (cs_calendar.py), and when
talking to systemd-timedated the panel now reads the CanNTP property of
org.freedesktop.timedate1 and makes the "Network time" switch insensitive
when no time synchronization service is available. So the specific
behaviour you described — the switch silently reverting to OFF — does not
happen anymore on that path: the switch is disabled instead.
Two related shortcomings do survive, but they are upstream issues and
distinct from what was reported here, so I will report them upstream:
- the switch is greyed out without telling the user why, so the
"display an error message" part of your suggestion is still
unaddressed;
- cs_calendar.py picks a legacy cinnamon-settings-daemon backend
whenever /usr/sbin/ntpd exists, which in Debian today means ntpsec or
openntpd; that backend still looks for /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate
(no longer shipped by any package) and runs "service ntp status"
(the unit is ntpsec.service now), so it misreports the NTP state.
Thanks again for taking the time to report this.
Regards,
Fabio
OpenPGP_signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
--- End Message ---
