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KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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Denwid
Posts: 15
Joined: 2010-11-19 21:48

KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

#1 Post by Denwid »

Hi everyone!

I'm on Debian testing.

My system clock is off by about 5 minutes though i set date & time to adjust automatically. I get a "Unable to contact time server: ." when i do the following:
  • * go into the Date & Time KDE Control Module
    * uncheck "Set date and time automatically"
    * recheck "Set date and time automatically"
    * hit "Apply"
    * enter the root-password in the upcoming password request
    * click "OK"
Pinging the selected time server works perfectly and there is no firewall or something like that.

I have already googled for the problem and found a few bug reports (not Debian specific) concerning this issue but they are old and none of them contain a solution. Does anyone have an idea what this could be or what i can do?

Forester
Posts: 14
Joined: 2011-01-01 12:56

Re: KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

#2 Post by Forester »

Hi Denwid,

I have just tried what you describe and I get "Unable to contact time server" just like you do.

Being able to ping pool.ntp.org does not really prove anything. Try it a few times and you will notice you get a reply from a different IP address each time.

I really would not expect this to work unless ntp (the Network Time Protocol) package is installed, which it seems, by default it is not. This will do:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install ntp
You may prefer to use a GUI package manager but I don't know what that is under KDE4.

For me, installing ntp has always been necessary and sufficient: I install it and the time is soon put right and stays right. I've never needed to turn it on (or off) through KDE's System Settings.

With ntp installed, I still get "Unable to contact time server" with the KDE's System Settings. So no KDE 'solution' but at least should be able to correct your machine's date and time.

Denwid
Posts: 15
Joined: 2010-11-19 21:48

Re: KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

#3 Post by Denwid »

Thank you Forester, I installed ntp and now it works! :D Anyways, it's sad that this isn't included automatically...

bram_vdsp
Posts: 1
Joined: 2011-10-14 12:44

Re: KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

#4 Post by bram_vdsp »

A little late to the party, but I encountered the same problem (sort of) using Debian testing (Wheezy).

As this bug report indicates, the Date & Time KDE Control Module requires either the ntpdate or rdate package in order to set the date automatically. (Until I installed the ntpdate package, I wasn't even able to check "Set date and time automatically"). By that time I had already installed the ntp package as well, which resulted in the "Unable to contact time server: ." problem, since ntpdate can't run while ntpd is running. Removing the ntp package solved that issue for me. I don't know the update interval KDE uses though, so I guess I'll see whether using ntpdate does trick.

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EddieB
Posts: 51
Joined: 2011-11-07 03:07

Re: KDE Date & Time Control: Unable to contact time server

#5 Post by EddieB »

Thanks Forester ...

I too believe that a kde install package 'should' default or offer to install either ntp or relative package as the kde error messages do not articulate or provide any trace to the problem ... For the record, when I went to update the clock from System-Settings > Date & Time or right click {clock applet} > Adjust Date & Time ... and continually received ...
Unable to authenticate/execute the action: 7, DBus Backend error: could
not contact the helper. Connection error: . Message error: Did not
receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not
send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the
reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
"The Problem is Your Not Grokking Debian ... "

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