Bug#275908: gnome-system-tools: Unhelpful message when ntp not set up

Michael Woodhams Michael Woodhams <mdw@free.net.nz>, 275908@bugs.debian.org
Tue, 12 Oct 2004 11:45:32 +1300


Package: gnome-system-tools
Version: 0.90.0-3
Severity: minor

Program /usr/bin/time-admin:
When I tried to select the "Synchronize clock with Internet servers"
box, I got an error message:

"NTP support is not running

Please run NTP support in the system to enable synchronisation of your
local time server with internet time servers"

This is very unhelpful. I tried installing 'ntpdate' and 'ntp' packages
before hitting on 'ntp-simple' as the one that made it work. The message
should specify the name of the package that needs to be installed.

As a wishlist item, it should offer actual installation as a single
click action. E.g "Clock synchronization requires the ntp-simple package
to be installed on your computer. Install it now? [Yes] [Cancel]"

A final point: The 'help' for time-admin offers no advice as to how to
sensibly choose your ntp servers.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_NZ, LC_CTYPE=en_NZ

Versions of packages gnome-system-tools depends on:
ii  libart-2.0-2              2.3.16-6       Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0               1.6.1-3        The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0              2.6.2-6        Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0            2.6.1-1        The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                     2.3.2.ds1-16   GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgconf2-4               2.6.4-2        GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0               1:2.4.0-1      Library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.4.6-2        The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0               2.6.1.2-2      The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0         2.6.1.1-2      A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0              2.6.1.1-4      The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0            2.6.2-2        The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgtk2.0-0               2.4.10-1       The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-4 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  liborbit2                 1:2.10.2-1.1   libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0             1.4.1-2        Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                  1.7-4          lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System Session Management
ii  libxml2                   2.6.11-3       GNOME XML library
ii  perl                      5.8.4-2.2      Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  xlibs                     4.3.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.1.1-7    compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information