Why do I get “can’t open /etc/ntp/drift.TEMP: Permission denied” entries in /var/log/messages when I use ntpd?

Release found: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

Resolution:
This error is caused by an incorrectly configured /etc/ntp.conf file. In earlier versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the drift file was located in the /etc/ntp directory, owned by root. As the ntp daemon does not run as root, it cannot create a new drift file. The preferred location for the drift file in the newer releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the /var/lib/ntp directory.

To correct this error, change the line in /etc/ntp.conf that reads:

driftfile /etc/ntp/drift

to:

driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift

contributed by Andrew Ryan

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This entry was posted by The editorial team on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 5:41 am and is filed under tips and tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.