I'm running Ubuntu in a VM. How do I disable ntpd?
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1Out of curiosity, why would you want to? Does it do harm when running on a VM?– SnekseDec 19, 2012 at 19:04
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1Use case: To test what happens to an embedded system if ntp is not available.– Martin HenningsMay 24, 2017 at 12:45
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Did you ever figure out what happens if NTP is not available ? I have an embedded system and currently trying to figure out the same thing.– VanGoMar 25, 2020 at 0:20
3 Answers
To stop ntpd:
sudo /etc/init.d/ntp stop
or
sudo service ntp stop
To prevent it from starting at boot:
sudo update-rc.d -f ntp remove
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@AaronFranke This answer was posted in 2011! For an up-to-date version (working in 18.04) please see @knb answer. Jan 10, 2019 at 9:47
With systemd, the two commands are:
sudo systemctl stop ntp
sudo systemctl disable ntp
Output (I think the warning can be ignored)
ntp.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install
Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install disable ntp
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script `ntp' overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (1 2 3 4 5) of script `ntp' overrides LSB defaults (1).
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script `ntp' overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (1 2 3 4 5) of script `ntp' overrides LSB defaults (1).
Check:
systemctl is-enabled ntp
Output
ntp.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install
Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install is-enabled ntp
disabled
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1Under Ubuntu 18.04 and later, the systemd service name is
systemd-timesyncd.service
Jul 2, 2019 at 0:35 -
I think that if you have upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04, it is still called
ntp
.– knbJul 2, 2019 at 7:30
Uninstall ntpd if it is installed. You will still have ntpdate installed. (It is difficult to remove.) Prevent it from executing by adding exit 0
to /etc/default/ntpdate
.
Update: This is an old answer. Most systems now use systemctl
to run commands. To disable ntp and ntpdate issue the commands:
systemctl disable ntp.service
systemctl disable ntpdate.service
You can check the status of ntp related units with the command:
systemctl list-unit-files | grep ntp
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Are you sure about this? /etc/default/ntpdate is just a configuration file. Dunno if it is sourced by any bash script, but I guess it's useless to add exit.– GelmaMar 4, 2021 at 10:02
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@Gelma files in /etc/default are usually sourced by the script running the related command. This was always the case for commands run by init.d scripts. Commands run by systemctl may not source the file. See update for the systemctl option.– BillThorMar 9, 2021 at 17:50