ntp-4.2.8.p10-1 fails after upgrade due to libcrypto.so.1.0.0 (installed 1.1) dependency and wants downgrade to 4.2.8.p9-2. How does that make sense?

Question

Disclaimer:

This really is not a major issue critical to the stable operation of my system but I am asking this because I simply can't make any sense of it and I would really like to know what is going on here.

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I am running an arch linux box and just did yaourt -Syua. Everything went fine. I did a reboot and checked systemctl list-units --state failed to see ntpd.service as a result. I journalctl -r -u ntpd and found the entry

Apr 24 19:54:33 htpc ntpd[1850]: /usr/bin/ntpd: error while loading shared libraries: libcrypto.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Running ldconfig -v | grep libcrypto yielded

libcrypto.so.1.1 -> libcrypto.so.1.1

Which in turn belongs to openssl

# yaourt -Ql | grep libcrypto
openssl /usr/lib/libcrypto.so
openssl /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.1

I then thought maybe something didn't upgrade the first time I ran yaourt -Syua so I tried a second time with no upgrade candidates. And the most likely candidate would be ntp anyway given that openssl was upgraded successfully

# yaourt -Si openssl | grep Version && yaourt -Qi openssl | grep Version
Version         : 1.1.0.e-1
Version         : 1.1.0.e-1

Checking ntpversion

# yaourt -Si ntp | grep Version && yaourt -Qi ntp | grep Version
Version         : 4.2.8.p9-2   // in the offical `Extra` repo
Version         : 4.2.8.p10-1  // installed on my system??

Just to see what would happen I tried to (re-)install ntp

# yaourt -Sy ntp
:: Synchronising package databases...
core is up to date
extra is up to date
archlinuxfr is up to date
community is up to date
multilib is up to date
warning: downgrading package ntp (4.2.8.p10-1 => 4.2.8.p9-2)
Packages (1) ntp-4.2.8.p9-2

Total Download Size:    1.71 MiB
Total Installed Size:   4.09 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      -0.10 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]

This then completely flustered me. It wants me to downgrade ntp when I just upgraded openssl in order to use the correct libcrypto.so?

# cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep openssl
[2017-04-24 19:23] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.k-1 -> 1.1.0.e-1)

# cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep ntp
[2017-04-13 18:08] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p9-1 -> 4.2.8.p10-1)

Also when looking at the official Arch Linux site, it says for the ntppackage its outdated stating ntp 4.2.8.p9-2 as the current version.

My Questions

• How is it possible that I have a newer ntpversion than stated in the official Extra repository while I only have one other custom repository ([archlinuxfr] - for yaourt) that does not carry ntp? I checked.
• Why is yaourt/pacman suggesting me to downgrade my package?
• Will downgrading my package actually solve my ntp problem or should I rather downgrade openssl assuming there to be the right libcrypto.so version?

Edit 1

I have a second arch linux box I also upgraded today where I dont have the issue. Here are the two pacman.log's in comparison. Might shed also some light on this:

BoxRunningFine# cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep -e "upgraded openssl" -e "upgraded ntp"
[2017-01-04 21:26] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p8-1 -> 4.2.8.p9-1)
[2017-02-28 19:05] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.j-1 -> 1.0.2.k-1)
[2017-04-24 18:48] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.k-1 -> 1.1.0.e-1)
[2017-04-24 18:49] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p9-1 -> 4.2.8.p9-2)


BoxWithIssue# cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep -e "upgraded ntp" -e "upgraded openssl"
[2016-06-05 03:18] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p7-1 -> 4.2.8.p8-1)
[2016-10-21 18:17] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.h-1 -> 1.0.2.j-1)
[2017-01-06 14:18] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p8-1 -> 4.2.8.p9-1)
[2017-02-08 22:54] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.j-1 -> 1.0.2.k-1)
[2017-04-13 18:08] [ALPM] upgraded ntp (4.2.8.p9-1 -> 4.2.8.p10-1)
[2017-04-24 19:23] [ALPM] upgraded openssl (1.0.2.k-1 -> 1.1.0.e-1)

By the looks of it the upgrading timing on the box with the issues was just poor. Guess that would be a classic case of bad luck. So then I just downgrade to 4.2.8.p9-2 and it should be fine I reckon?

Edit 2

# yaourt -Sy ntp
warning: downgrading package ntp (4.2.8.p10-1 => 4.2.8.p9-2)
Packages (1) ntp-4.2.8.p9-2
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
:: Retrieving packages...
 ntp-4.2.8.p9-2-x86_64
(1/1) downgrading ntp                             

# systemctl start ntpd && systemctl status ntpd
● ntpd.service - Network Time Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ntpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-04-24 21:14:41 CEST; 5s ago

# yaourt -Qi ntp
Name            : ntp
Version         : 4.2.8.p9-2

# systemctl status | grep -m1 State:
State: running

Problem solved. Downgrading to ntp-4.2.8.p9-2 was the solution. Thanks for the help and providing the according resources.

Answer 1

This looks like this bug which reads:

4.2.8.p10-1 has been replaced with 4.2.8.p9-2 apparently by the openssl rebuild.

I assume that the rebuild for the OpenSSL update was in staging long enough to be superseded in the meantime by the update for a new upstream release, but then when the OpenSSL rebuild was moved from staging to community, the package with the lower version number replaced the one with the higher one.

Edit: It looks like 4.2.8.p10-2 has already been uploaded to correct this situation.