does NTP not work with WDS on Johns Fork?

[Make WiFi Great Again]

I have an ac68U running as main router with a few more 68u's acting as nodes using WDS. All are on Johns Fork 47D5 and for the life of me I cannot get NTP to work on the nodes. I have tried using us.pool.ntp.org on the nodes as that is what I have set on the main one connected to the internet. I have also tried entering in nthe main routers ip address, as well as it's other name 43B8.lan and nothing works. I have the main router acting as a NTP server using the toggle in admin settings. Ideally I would like the nodes to get their time from the main router but I wold gladly accept them getting their time from an internet server if that was needed. According to syslog the WDS nodes think they are all offline. I am guessing that in WDS mode for some reason NTP wont bother to look for a server on any link other then the wan port is this correct? I have an old netgear router uhm WGR614-V9 that behaves like this. It would only ever set its time if the WAN port was connected to internet. If I used the old netgear as a switch it would never set the time no matter what. I am guessing the situation remains the same for Johns Fork yes?. If this is the case, is there a way around this? I would very much like to have NTP working on all the 68u's.

 

[john9527]

I think you are the first user to ever post using WDS.

You are correct, the ntp client won't normally start without a WAN connenction. But I did do a change recently for router-mode not connected to the WAN that may help.

First, ssh to the nodes and issue the following

nvram set ntp_force=1
nvram commit

Then edit a new script,
/jffs/scripts/lan-start
with the following

#!/bin/sh
service restart_ntpc

save and make executable.

Then reboot the nodes and keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Make WiFi Great Again]

it worked! hurrah it worked! you the man! just for ships and gaggles i am going to try this on the old WGR614-V9 which is a single stream wireless G wouter. pretty old but it uses broadcom and i have hacked it to enable telnet so i can play with the nvram and overclocking. be interesting to see if i can get it to work too. not that it matters. I dont think it needs to know the date. its more of a curiosity hobby type thing for me. And if it works it will be a point of pride as well.

ah it didnt work on the WGR614-V9 but thats ok It doesnt need it or even matter. I only use it as a seldom used wireless g print server to keep the 2 wireless g devices i have off the main routers so it dodesnt even need the correct date and time.

 

[john9527]

it worked! hurrah it worked!

Glad to hear it! I also did a change for the next release so that you won't need to make the script anymore....just do the nvram setting.

i am going to try this on the old WGR614-V9

Doubtful....it's custom code that I added that implemented 'ntp_force'

 

[Make WiFi Great Again]

yup you are correct. see previous edit. thank you for the help though. and for including this fix in the next release. that makes me happy to know i helped fix a small bug. even if its something nobody ever uses lmao.

btw i put the fix into /scripts/post-mount. reason is that i already use post mount for other things so i figured i might as well use it for this rather then creating another file. apples and oranges with the same result. john you da man.