Comment 30 for bug 114505

As others, I confirm for Gutsy 7.10...

I do not see a consensus in the preceding comments regarding a "for-certain" solution. It is absolutely a situation that needs to be resolved, and, boy, would I like to see a documented change here that does.

heindsight, in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=647559&page=2 said:
"The problem is that the boot sequence goes something like this:

    * S12dbus: Starts dbus
          o NetworkManager is started and starts trying to bring up network interfaces
            Initially, it fails for interfaces using dhcp, since dhcdbd is not yet running.
    * S23ntp:Starts ntpd
      ntpd tries to associate with servers, but fails because network interfaces are not yet up.
    * S24dhcdbd: Starts dhcdbd
      NetworkManager can finally bring up interfaces that use dhcp
    * S40networking: Runs scripts in /etc/network/if-up.d
          o ntpdate tries to set the time, but fails because ntpd is already running."

I do not know if that is accurate, but it sure seems to be.

The bottom line is that the sequencing is messed up. It needs to be this (in my opinion, what the final fix should do):

 a. ethernet connection is up FOR GOOD (not to be stopped, or changed, or re-dhcp'ed, or restarted subsequently during the boot)

 b. ntpdate (if installed) runs, sets the time, completely exits, and releases all ports or other resources. Also, it would be EXTREMELY nice to have the option of running 'hwclock --systohc' after ntpdate, to write the time into the hw clock (If ntpd later tries to start, and hw clock was more than 1000sec off actual time, ntpd will fail to start--with notice appearing only in the syslog).

 c. ntpd (if installed) is started.

The ntpdate (ntpdate-debian) and ntp scripts should test for the necessary states to exist for them to properly run, and if they do not exist, schedule a retry when the conditions are met.