Chrony and GPSD

Sources such as:

• https://www.rjsystems.nl/en/2100-ntpd-garmin-gps-18-lvc-gpsd.php
• https://lists.ntp.org/pipermail/questions/2005-November/007878.html

Describe how to wire a Garmin gps 18 lvc to a serial port to grab the PPS (pulse-per-second) signal to create a Stratum 1 timesource. Other sources show using ntpd, and the gpsd man page provides config snippets.

Alpine Linux gpsd package 3.9-r1 and higher has the necessary pps code to interface with chrony. This page lists all of the files for a complete, working example:

• /etc/modules needs to list the pps_ldisc module - you'll need to manually load it if not doing a reboot

Contents of /etc/modules

pps_ldisc

• If the GPS 18 LVC is on /dev/ttyS1, then:

Contents of /etc/conf.d/gpsd

# Copyright 1999-2010 Gentoo Foundation # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 # Config file for gpsd server # Optional arguments # Options include: # -b = bluetooth-safe: open data sources read-only # -n = don't wait for client connects to poll GPS # -N = don't go into background # -F sockfile = specify control socket location # -G = make gpsd listen on INADDR_ANY # -D integer (default 0) = set debug level # -S integer (default 2947) = set port for daemon GPSD_OPTIONS="-n -b" DEVICES="/dev/ttyS1" GPSD_SOCKET="/var/run/gpsd.sock" BAUDRATE="4800" # Serial setup # # For serial interfaces, options such as low_latency are recommended # Also, https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/upstream-bugs.html#tiocmwait recommends # setting the baudrate with stty # Uncomment the following lines if using a serial device: # /bin/stty -F ${DEVICE} ${BAUDRATE} /bin/setserial ${DEVICE} low_latency

Note: As of v3.11, the init.d and conf.d files have been merged from gentoo.

The purpose is to allow gpsd to start without editing /etc/conf.d/gpsd. Note that while gpsd will now start without editing the conf.d file, it will do so with no gps devices attached.

Also note that if you are using a serial device it is still recommended to add the stty and setserial commands as noted in the example configuration above.

• This shows all four methods of getting time from gpsd:

Contents of /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

server 0.pool.ntp.org server 1.pool.ntp.org server 2.pool.ntp.org initstepslew 30 0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 2.pool.ntp.org # SHM0 from gpsd is the NMEA data at 4800bps, so is not very accurate refclock SHM 0 delay 0.5 refid NMEA # SHM1 from gpsd (if present) is from the kernel PPS_LDISC # module. It includes PPS and will be accurate to a few ns refclock SHM 1 offset 0.0 delay 0.1 refid NMEA+ # SOCK protocol also includes PPS data and # it also provides time within a few ns refclock SOCK /var/run/chrony.ttyS1.sock delay 0.0 refid SOCK # PPS is from the /dev/pps0 device. Note that # chronyd creates the /var/run/chrony.ttyS1.sock device, but # gpsd creates the /dev/pps0 device # openrc rules start gpsd /after/ chronyd, so /dev/pps0 # is not created until after chronyd is started # If you want to use pps0, either edit the openrc rules # or add this source after gpsd is started # refclock PPS /dev/pps0 refid PPS # If you see something in ns... its good. # 1 second = # 1000 ms = # 1000000 us = # 1000000000 ns logchange 0.5 local stratum 10 logdir /var/log/chrony keyfile /etc/chrony/chrony.keys commandkey 10 dumpdir /var/log/chrony driftfile /var/log/chrony/chrony.drift allow all

Chronyc

If everything is working correctly, a chronyc 'sources' command should look like this:

chronyc> sources
210 Number of sources = 6
MS Name/IP address         Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================
#x NMEA                          0   4   377    14   +684ms[ +684ms] +/-  252ms
#+ PPS                           0   4   377    13  +2040ns[+2060ns] +/-   50ms
#* SOCK                          0   4   377     7   +225ns[ +245ns] +/- 2217ns
^? tick.tock.com                 2  10   377   318  -5144us[-5144us] +/-   72ms
^? time.keeper.net               3  10   377   720  -4571us[-4567us] +/-  139ms
^? dead.time.server.org          0  10     0   10y     +0ns[   +0ns] +/-    0ns

• NMEA (SHM0) is "x" - its really unstable
• PPS (SHM1) is good, but the delay of 0.1 makes it the not-preferred master
• SOCK is the preferred master
• The other NTP servers are only used if the local server goes down.

Notes

• In /etc/chrony/chrony.conf, there are four possible time sources:
  • SHM 0 (NMEA serial data)
  • SHM 1 (NMEA with PPS)
  • SOCK (PPS 'proprietary' gpsd/chrony interface)
  • PPS (PPS only from the serial interface pulse)
• You only need 1 of them, although 3 are shown above
• In the example above, SHM1 is specified with a delay of 0.1 to prevent it from competing with the SOCK protocol
  • If you prefer to use the SHM1 source instead of SOCK, then either:
    • comment out the SOCK protocol line
    • or reverse the delay values.
• Note that the SHM0 source (NMEA only, no PPS) is set to a higher delay - don't use it if you have PPS available.
  • An example of where you would want to use SHM0 is a USB based gps receiver - they don't have the PPS line
• Chrony creates the SOCK interface; chrony should be started before gpsd. If you restart chronyd for some reason, make sure you restart gpsd after.
• The SHM0 interface can be used with USB based gps devices. In this case, use /dev/ttyUSBX in the /etc/conf.d/gpsd file, and leave the stty and setserial lines commented out.