Subject: Re: ssh problems
From: Larry Hall <[email-masked]>
To: Eli Barzilay <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 23:07:42 -0400

At 08:15 PM 7/10/2005, you wrote:
>On Jul  9, Larry Hall wrote:
>> When running through sshd, you're running via a service.  Authenticating 
>> without a password means that Windows won't authenticate as the user you are.
>> The reverse is also true.  So it's possible that VS needs access to some 
>> information that it doesn't have access to without being authenticated by
>> Windows.  I could hazard a guess or two as to what that might be but a 
>> better approach would be to just check the MSDN and on-line sources for 
>> the different access restrictions of services that don't authenticate with
>> Windows.  Sorry that's not much help, beyond the idea itself.
>
>For unrelated reasons, I will be debugging this thing remotely via
>vnc.  This makes he whole deal a lot more complex.  But the thing is
>that I won't mind a dirty solution -- is there a way to do this by
>reducing security somehow?  Perhaps there is a way to start sshd in a
>different way?  (After all, this thing *used* to work just fine with
>an older cygwin installation...)

Eli, please send all replies to the list only.   That is why I set my 
"Reply-To" to point to the Cygwin list.   There's no need to force a 
reply to me directly as I read the list as much as I do my personal 
email.  Sometimes more. ;-)

To be honest, I'm not sure what changed on this machine where you're 
noticing this problem so I don't know specifically what to suggest you 
check to find the problem.  The symptoms you report suggest that 
using public key authentication doesn't allow you access to some 
resource that VS needs but without further details, it's not possible
to say what's getting in the way.  Obviously, as you've found, one 
solution is to use password authentication, which uses Windows password
authentication so that Windows knows you're you (which isn't the case
with public key authentication - Windows still believes the *authenticated*
user is the user running the service, which is the SYSTEM user by default,
except on W2K3).  The typical problem in these cases is accessing shared
drives, which is why I pointed you in that direction first.  I'm not aware 
of other resources that are commonly restricted, though that doesn't mean 
there aren't some or that your system administrator hasn't added some.  So
this could be worth checking.  Then there's always running sshd as the user
you want to run the builds.  This should eliminate any authentication 
problems but it does limit the usefulness of sshd since it's now
affectively a one-person service, though you could certainly run two 
sshds, with this "special" sshd running on a different port.

But I think it's fair to say that the detailed information you've provided
so far on this issue is quite limited.  If you're looking for more help, I
think it makes sense to point you to the problem reporting guidelines at:

<http://cygwin.com/problems.html>

Please read these guidelines thoroughly and provide the requested information
in any follow-up you make to the list on this issue.  Beyond the 
configuration information requested, the most helpful feedback you could 
give is a simple example that shows this problem.  It's possible that in 
the preparation of such an example, you actually find the problem yourself.
But, if not, that will provide others with a basis for reproducing and 
debugging the problem.

--
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746                     

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