Cron not running any jobs in Lucid

[Eltern]

I use crontab for a daily alarm clock, which stopped working after I moved to Lucid.

$ crontab -l
# m h  dom mon dow   command
50 7 * * * /home/jeff/alarm.sh

In an effort to demonstrate that cron wasn't running anything, I tried this:

$ crontab -l
# m h  dom mon dow   command
*/1 *   *   *   *   /usr/bin/gedit

Which didn't run anything ever.

Looking at some of the concepts described here, I next looked at if crontab was being read.

$ ls -lut /etc/crontab
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 724 2010-05-10 11:02 /etc/crontab

11:02 is about when I turned on the computer, and long before many edits to the crontab file.

When did cron run, though?

$ ls -lut /etc/init.d/cron
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2010-05-10 14:35 /etc/init.d/cron -> /lib/init/upstart-job

That's after I turned on the computer, but what's this upstart-job business? I know upstart is something Ubuntu has started to use, but I know nothing about it.

I also tried reassigning the crontab file with "crontab -u jeff new-crontab-file", but it didn't change any behavior.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[bredman]

I assume you are using sudo crontab -e to edit the crontab file...

Have you checked if cron is still running?
ps aux|grep cron

Check if cron is mentioned in any log files
grep -r 'cron' /var/log

Your gedit test might not work because it is interactive. Try something like
*/1 * * * * /bin/date >> /test.txt

[Eltern]

Ah! I forgot "export DISPLAY=:0 &&"! Thanks.

For future people who find this post, you need it to look something like this:

$ crontab -l
# m h  dom mon dow   command
32 22 * * * export DISPLAY=:0 && /home/jeff/alarm.sh

More information here.

[dcstar]

Ah! I forgot "export DISPLAY=:0 &&"! Thanks.

For future people who find this post, you need it to look something like this:

$ crontab -l
# m h  dom mon dow   command
32 22 * * * export DISPLAY=:0 && /home/jeff/alarm.sh

More information here.

Then mark the thread.

[grenobel]

The display export does not explain why cron jobs are not running. I am having the problem of cron absolutely not working *only since upgrading to Lucid*. To see if cron was working or not, I added a cron job to /etc/crontab:

*/5 * * * * root /bin/echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Memory cache is not changed, so that didn't work. Next I tried adding the same thing via "crontab -e", also with no luck.

Just to be sure I wasn't losing it, I tried this as well - still no luck.

* * * * * root /usr/bin/touch /root/crontwatch.txt

File does not even generate.
Yes - cron is running:

root@glebel:/etc/init# ps aux | grep cron | head -1
root     10221  0.0  0.0   3836  1008 ?        Ss   08:44   0:00 cron

I admit I know nothing about upstart. So I read the screen and follow the output:

root@glebel:/etc/init# /etc/init.d/cron status
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service cron status

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the status(8) utility, e.g. status cron
cron stop/waiting
root@glebel:/etc/init# status cron
cron stop/waiting

I have no clue as to what I need to do to get cron to actually work. I read your post, about the console - but since neither of these have anything to do with a display, I just wanted to find out if there is some magic to getting cron functionality back. The same cron entries work in both via "/etc/crontab" as well as with "/usr/bin/crontab -e" on my laptop which is still running Hardy and init.d scripts.

Any pointers for an upstart clueless noob?

[grenobel]

I've been searching around in the forums. A lot of issues with cron on Lucid, but no real answers.
Also searched around on 'the google', but no good responses either...
Is it possible to *NOT* use upstart in Lucid?

[sedawk]

* * * * * root /usr/bin/touch /root/crontwatch.txt

Okay, that syntax is okay for /etc/crontab, but I actually
never used that one.
When running "crontab -e" to edit a crontab you should
be editing a crontab file that doesn't need the user name.
So the input line for "crontab -e" should be

* * * * * /usr/bin/touch /root/crontwatch.txt

But I'm not sure that is the root cause for all the trouble ...

I never changed /etc/crontab and I just did
a "crontab -e" for the default user (not root) and
the touch worked fine (/home/myuser/cron_is_working.out)