Re: [gentoo-user] Problems setting up sshd on an installation kernel

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

On Sun, Dec 06, 2009 at 01:56:06PM -0500, Joshua Murphy wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Florian Philipp
> <lists@f_philipp.fastmail.net> wrote:
> > Alan Mackenzie schrieb:
> >> Hi, folks!

> >> I'm trying to get sshd working on an embryonic Gentoo installation on my
> >> laptop.  The reason is that I want to ssh from my nice comfy desktop
> >> system into this laptop to do the rest of the installation stuff.

> >> The installation kernel with which I'm having problems is:
> >> Linux livecd 2.6.30-gentoo-r8 #1 SMP Tue Nov 3 11:40:51 UTC 2009.

> >> Having started sshd on my laptop, when I do

> >>     ssh -lroot 192.168.2.101

> >> from my desktop, I get prompted for my ssh key's pass phrase, which I
> >> enter.  Thereafter, nothing happens, and it continues to happen for a
> >> long, long time.

> > [...]

> >> Clearly openpty (a C function) is failing to find some file.  Don't you
> >> just love error messages like "No such file or directory" which forget
> >> to identify the filename?  I'm guessing that the file it can't find is
> >> the device file for the new pty.

> >> Is there anything I can do to get sshd working from this kernel (and if
> >> so, what?), or is there something fundamentally wrong with the kernel
> >> configuration?


> > Where did you start sshd, in the chrooted environment or on the live cd
> > itself?

> My first thought as well... I'd guess, just at a glance, that sshd was
> started in the chroot, and that /mnt/gentoo/dev/ is bind mounted
> properly, but /mnt/gentoo/dev/pts/ isn't.

As said, I fixed the problem by mounting /dev with --rbind.  This
misunderstanding cost me, perhaps, 10 hours of my time.

I then reported my problem to the bug tracker, suggesting that the manual
should be amended to say "--rbind" here.

I really wish I hadn't bothered.  My attempt to contribute was brusquely
brushed aside by somebody who didn't even bother to thank me for my
trouble (I always thank people reporting bugs to my project), said that
he "couldn't reproduce [my] error", and asserted that sshd wasn't meant
to work in the chrooted environment (why on Earth not?), implying it was
my stupid fault for not following the manual rigidly and droidwise.  To
cap it all, he patronisingly referred me to the appropriate sections of
the fine manual (that's after my having reported how I'd already fixed
the problem for me).

See https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=296073

Seems to me, reporting problems to Gentoo is a waste of time, at least
documentation problems.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).