Bug 716

Summary:	OpenSSH 3.7.1p2: sshd doesn't start at reboot (Tru64 UNIX)
Product:	Portable OpenSSH	Reporter:	Ole Holm Nielsen <Ole.H.Nielsen>
Component:	sshd	Assignee:	OpenSSH Bugzilla mailing list <openssh-bugs>
Status:	CLOSED INVALID
Severity:	major
Priority:	P2
Version:	-current
Hardware:	Alpha
OS:	OSF/1

Description Ole Holm Nielsen 2003-09-26 00:18:11 AEST

The sshd daemon works correctly when started from the command line
under HP/Compaq Tru64 UNIX v4.0F (thanks to the fix in [Bug 653]).
The sshd is started at boot time from /etc/inittab like this:
   sshd::once:/usr/local/sbin/sshd
This used to work fine with OpenSSH 2.1.1p4.

Unfortunately, with the OpenSSH 3.7.1p2 sshd, no sshd process is
running after the reboot.  There are no error messages on the console,
nor in any syslog files.  When I login to the console and start
sshd from the command line, the daemon starts and works correctly.
Why won't sshd start from /etc/inittab ?  Is there an alternative
startup method for 3.7.1p2 ?

Comment 1 Ben Lindstrom 2003-09-26 01:02:09 AEST

I believe you really want:

sshd:12345:respawn:/usr/sbin/sshd -D

Comment 2 Ole Holm Nielsen 2003-09-26 01:09:45 AEST

I do not believe your syntax:
  > sshd:12345:respawn:/usr/sbin/sshd -D
to be valid on Tru64 UNIX.  Can you please explain why the -D flag
(do not become a daemon) would be a good idea ?

Comment 3 Ben Lindstrom 2003-09-26 02:03:18 AEST

Deamonizing needs to be disabled otherwise it confuses init.  It no longer 
knows how to manage the process.

And if this is not the right syntax for Tru64 then Tru64 is broken because 
inittab is an extremely old concept (pre-OSF).

If you do a search on "inittab sshd -D" on google you'll see multiple documents 
talking about this.  Multiple commentary on it.  Even if you just look back 
through the openssh-unix-dev@ list you'll see it is the correct solution.

Comment 4 Ole Holm Nielsen 2003-09-29 22:09:26 AEST

Following Ben Lindstrom I changed by /etc/inittab to read:
   sshd:23:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/sshd -D

When rebooting (or doing "init q") I get these error messages
on the console:

   INIT: Command is respawning too rapidly. Check for possible errors.
   id:  sshd "/usr/local/sbin/sshd -D"

So with or without the -D flag, sshd version 3.7.1p2 doesn't seem
to be startable from /etc/inittab on Tru64 UNIX.  Version 3.6 of
sshd didn't have these problems.

Comment 5 Darren Tucker 2004-03-30 13:08:57 AEST

Can you redirect the output from sshd in debug mode?  Ie:
sshd:23:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/sshd -ddd >/tmp/sshd-debug.log 2>&1

or whatever the correct syntax for Tru64 is?

Comment 6 Darren Tucker 2004-06-25 17:32:20 AEST

3 months no reply == closed bug.