# [SOLVED] NetworkManager, DHCP and NTP

## sveyret

Hello,

I've got a laptop which I can connect to many wired and wi-fi networks. For that reason, I chose to install NetworkManager, which make setting new network rather easy. As suggested by the Wiki, I made NetworkManager run with dhclient (keeping default use flags +dhclient -dhcpcd). All this works well for quite a long time.

Unfortunately, I recently discovered that, even if my networks provide a ntp-servers option with the dhcp, these servers are absolutely not used by my ntp daemon. I saw somewhere that dhclient does not manage ntp-servers. Is that still true? Is there a workaround I can use to update ntp servers? Should I replace NetworkManager with something else?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Currently using up-to-date Gentoo with profile default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma]

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## Fitzcarraldo

At the moment I'm not on one of my laptops running Gentoo (both use NetworkManager, dhclient and NTP) so I can't check right now, but have a look in /etc/dhcp/dhclient.d/ and /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/ because you can specify/remove NTP servers in hook scripts in those directories. My guess is that it would not be a problem to stop dhclient from forcing an NTP server and to configure NetworkManager to use an NTP server of your choice.

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## UberLord

 *sveyret wrote:*   

> I've got a laptop which I can connect to many wired and wi-fi networks. For that reason, I chose to install NetworkManager, which make setting new network rather easy. 

 

Have you tried dhcpcd-{gtk,qt} alongside wpa_supplicant?

Same effect, a lot less disk space.

Why do you prefer NetworkManager?

And dhcpcd can configure your NTP if you un-comment the option for it in /etc/dhcpcd.conf.

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## sveyret

Thank you for your reply. I forgot to mention that I also need to connect to a VPN using a NetworkManager plugin (networkmanager-fortisslvpn).

@Fitzcarraldo

If you can give me more information on how to do what you suggest (or a link to a how-to), I'd appreciate.

@UberLord

I used to have wpa_supplicant a few years ago. If I remember well, it was not as easy as NetworkManager to use. I had never heard about dhcpcd-ui, thank you for suggesting. Does it integrate well with plasma? Does either wpa_supplicant or dhcpcd-ui manage VPN? Do you know an easy way to manage Fortinet VPN without using NetworkManager?

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## UberLord

dhcpcd-qt runs in the system tray.

It does not have any vpn plugins.

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## Fitzcarraldo

sveyret,

Is this is the sort of thing you're trying to achieve?: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=537358#37 ( See also https://serverfault.com/a/785797 ).

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## sveyret

 *UberLord wrote:*   

> 
> 
> It does not have any vpn plugins.
> 
> 

 

Well, then, probably one day I'll have a deeper look at your solution, because I like when things are light. But for the moment, I will continue with NetworkManager.

Thank you anyway!

 *Fitzcarraldo wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Is this is the sort of thing you're trying to achieve?
> 
> 

 

Yes, that's exactly what I needed! Thanks a lot, it's working now!   :Very Happy: 

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