ntpdate command not found

Introduction

When you run more command in linux terminal / console, you get the following error message

ntpdate: command not found

or when using sudo you get the following error message

sudo: ntpdate: command not found

Solutions to ntpdate: command not found

How To Fix ntpdate: command not found in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux / Raspbian

In Ubuntu ntpdate is provided by ntpsec-ntpdate package.

ntpsec-ntpdate is:

NTP, the Network Time Protocol, is used to keep computer clocks accurate by synchronizing them over the Internet or a local network, or by following an accurate hardware receiver that interprets GPS, DCF-77, or similar time signals.

ntpdate is a simple NTP client that sets a system’s clock to match the time obtained by communicating with one or more NTP servers. It is not sufficient, however, for maintaining an accurate clock in the long run. ntpdate by itself is useful for occasionally setting the time on machines that do not have full-time network access, such as laptops.

This is the NTPsec version of ntpdate. NTPsec is a secure, hardened, and improved implementation derived from the original NTP project.

If the full NTP daemon from the package “ntpsec” is installed, then ntpsec-ntpdate is not necessary.

To fix this problem, we can install more using the command below.

sudo apt-get -y install ntpsec-ntpdate

This command might take some time to finish depending on your machine internet connection.

You can also use apt command to install ntpsec-ntpdate.

sudo apt -y install ntpsec-ntpdate

Or if you have aptitude installed you can use the following command.

sudo aptitude install ntpsec-ntpdate

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to fix ntpdate command not found error in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux or Raspbian distribution.