I ran into the same problem. Here some more information. On startup (boot process) of my Debian/Etch dhcp/ntp clients, the hook
/etc/dhcp3/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/ntp gets called, (re)starting ntpd at a point in time (DHCP BOUND), when the network is not configured yet. Some seconds later the init script /etc/init.d/ntp attempts to start ntpd, but the start-stop-daemon just exits, since ntpd is already running. Hence, ntpd stays in an offline state as Erik explained. On shutdown of the clients, the script /etc/init.d/ntp stops ntpd, but it is (re)started again by the hook /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/ntp some seconds later (DHCP RELEASE). Then the systems gets down. This can be worked around by replacing the line invoke-rc.d ntp restart with invoke-rc.d ntp try-restart in function 'ntp_server_restart()' of the hook. Now, when the hook is called on startup/shutdown it does not (needlessly) start ntpd anymore, and the startup/shutdown behaviour is controlled by the init scripts alone. The general problem, however, remains. I.e., when restarting the network on the client: # /etc/init.d/networking restart Reconfiguring network interfaces... There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 1687 killed old client process, removed PID file Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4 Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/ Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5 Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5 Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 172.20.1.6 port 67 Stopping NTP server: ntpd. Starting NTP server: ntpd. Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4 Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/ Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5 Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:bf:65:ad:b5 Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4 DHCPOFFER from 172.20.1.6 DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPACK from 172.20.1.6 Stopping NTP server: ntpd. Starting NTP server: ntpd. bound to 172.20.1.9 -- renewal in 237 seconds. done. then ntpd is left offline by the second stop/start of the NTP server, because the network interface is not configured at that point. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]