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Subject: FAQ entry for "The CYGWIN sshd service could not be started"
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 09:36:19 -0400
Message-ID: <819444F85779F242AFC7E3FDA461248F0221D7E6@IMCSRV4.MITRE.ORG>
From: "Van Zandt, Jim" <jrv AT mitre DOT org>
To: <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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When I tried to start sshd, I got the message 

  The CYGWIN sshd service could not be started.

The FAQ entry "Why don't my services work (or access network shares)?"
seemed the most applicable, but the suggestions there didn't help.  In
particular, I couldn't remember whether I had selected "Install for all
users" when I originally ran setup.exe.  (I see that is the default,
and I assume that's what I used.)  Anyway, the suggested command didn't
fix the problem.  I assume there's an easy way to tell how the system
was installed.  Could that be added to the FAQ?

Eventually I found the necessary clue here:
http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=phpwsbb&PHPWSBB_MAN_OP=repl
y&PHPWS_MAN_ITEMS=229&reply_to=957 (although I think his fix was
incorrect).  I had copied the keys from the Linux installation on the
same machine, in order to maintain a consistent identity as far as
other machines are concerned, but had neglected to fix the ownership.

I suggest that something like this be added to the FAQ:

   Check the sshd log: "/var/log/sshd.log". It may state that it
couldn't load the files that contained the host keys:
   
   /etc/ssh_host_key
   /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key
   /etc/ssh_host_rsa_key
   
   In that case, simply fix the ownership and/or permissions of those
files:
   
   chown SYSTEM.Users /etc/ssh_host*
   chmod 600 /etc/ssh*key   
   chmod 644 /etc/ssh*pub

Finally, I suggest that the error message "The CYGWIN sshd service
could not be started" be added to the FAQ entry, so a Google search is
more likely to turn up the right answer.

              - Jim Van Zandt

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