10.2: ntp update breaks DCF77 clock

[Michael B. Eichorn]

On Sat, 2015-08-15 at 15:46 +0000, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> I have a little Soekris box whose ONLY task is to get the time from
> a simple DCF77 time signal receiver and redistribute it with NTP.
> The update from 10.1 to 10.2 has broken this functionality.
> 
> The relevant ntp.conf configuration...
> 
> server 127.127.8.0 mode 14
> fudge 127.127.8.0 time1 0.235
> 
> ... now results in the obscure error message:
> 
> PARSE receiver #0: parse_start: parse_setfmt() FAILED.
> 
> The ntp code is not very transparent, but I think the root cause
> are the ntp/config.h changes that came with the 4.2.8p3 update.  A
> number of previously disabled obscure clock drivers were enabled,
> but crucially CLOCK_RAWDCF was disabled, and this is the PARSE
> subdriver needed to use the popular DCF77 serial receivers.
> 
> Frankly, it looks like we used to have a carefully considered
> selection of clock drivers which has been blindly splattered with
> the upstream defaults in the last update.
> 
> I don't know how to proceed here.  The system ntpd is broken.  The
> ntpd in ports also doesn't enable this clock type by default, so
> no package.  The whole raison d'être for this setup was to have a
> maintenance-free NTP server that does not require custom compiling
> ntpd.  *sigh*
> 

Dunno as to what happened with ntp or how to fix it, but there are a
couple other ntp soultions in ports that might work. 

NTP is known to be very complex, IIRC phk@ is being paid by the Linux
Foundation to write a replacement, ntimed. While there has not yet been
an official release ntimed is in ports.

Another option is OpenNTPD from OpenBSD, the portable version of this is
in ports as well.

I have no idea if they will work any better with your receiver, but since
they are completely separate implementations they might be worth a try.

Not really an expert here, you mentioned trying the ntp port, and I was
aware of these two alternative implementations.
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