NTPD - cap_set_proc() failed to drop root privileges: Operation not permitted

Problem description

NTPD doesn't start on a virtual machine:

service ntpd status ntpd dead but pid file exists service ntpd restart Shutting down ntpd:      [FAILED] Starting ntpd:           [ OK ] tail /var/log/messages ... cap_set_proc() failed to drop root privileges: Operation not permitted

Resolution

vi /etc/sysconfig/ntpd

locate the following line and comment it out:

# OPTIONS="-u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g"

Now the restart will work:

service ntpd start