Can access Webmin, Can't SSH in however

[highlifelight]

I really did try to figure this out on my own, but I'm giving up.

I followed all the instructions. I installed webmin via pacman. I added webmin to the list of daemons in rc.conf and restarted. At that point, I could no longer ssh in, and the light is off, but webmin is working. The sshd daemon is not running, but it was never removed from rc.conf. I try to manually start it via the unused modules section in webmin, but it doesn't do anything. I try to start it using the command shell function in webmin, and this is the result:

> rc.d start sshd
:: Starting Secure Shell Daemon [BUSY] [DONE]

Is there anything I can give you guys to help diagnose my problem? I'm going crazy.

[tomcheng76]

just poweroff the alarm, unplug the harddisk, mount it in a linux box, edit rc.conf, plug it back, quickest method to solve your problem if webmin is not neccessary.

[highlifelight]

Here's the thing; I can edit rc.conf within webmin. That's not the problem. The problem is that nothing seems to get sshd to start.

The only thing I left out of my original description (I was awfully tired last night) was that when I first noticed the problem loading sshd, I tried to manually start it and I got an error saying something along the lines of a version mismatch? I updated the package with pacman, figuring that would resolve it, and that's where I'm left. It won't start manually, it won't start from rc.conf.

[WarheadsSE]

Find out the error, check /var/log/* .

[highlifelight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'F')ind out the error, check /var/log/* .

[WarheadsSE]

Well, upon cursory examination: errors, daemons & everything look rather large, don't you think?

[darth]

Fix Pogoplug SSH Problems

CAUTION: I am not a Linux expert by any stretch of the imagination. The steps below were the result of lots of trial and error… mostly error. I can only say it worked for me. Your mileage may vary. Consult your physician if you experience blurred vision, cramps or explosive diarrhea as these are signs of severe pogoplug side-effects. Feel free to correct anything I rant about.

THE SHORT VERSION

I had the same problems. Got the same huge logs. Could not edit nor view logs, they would lock up my terminal or my Unbuntu editor. Did the next best thing. I erased them and replaced with nice clean new ones. Wept openly, then surfed and experimented for days. These steps worked for me.

Go to:

http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3

Scroll down to Help! It stopped working!

1. Follow instructions to put new rootfs on a new ext3 partition.

2. IMPORTANT: Install Webmin before you update.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Webmin

3. Use pacman to update.

pacman -Syu

Be sure to reinstall udev-oxnas

pacman -S udev-oxnas

If you have pacman file retrieval problems, update your /etc/resolv.conf with:

# Google DNS only because I can remember it
Nameserver 8.8.8.8
Nameserver 8.8.4.4

On the Webmin main menu, select SYSTEM, then PACMAN, then click on the

RUN SYSTEM UPGRADE

button. If the gods of pogo are smiling, everything should work again.


LONG VERSION

Bought a Pogoplug V3, followed the excellent instructions here on how to make it my willing slave and it worked. I updated it and added Webmin, Samba and LAMP all with a surprising ease. Life was good, however, I noticed that I had gone back in time in the process.

The date was Dec 31, 1969… a hazy year for me… I think I had hair. Anyway, being the fool I am, I thought I could convince ntp to provide the correct date by supplying mirror address for things like various servers from pool.ntp.org. Alas, no. I even gave it the navy’s own wonderful ntp server and had no success. I could update it manually using date, but what fun is that?

Again, foolishly, I searched the web and found someone, someplace that said openntp was old and senile, use ntp instead. I removed openntp and installed ntp. Pacman asked to be updated in the process and a nightmare began. After rebooting, I could no long ssh into my pogo. Webmin did work. I tried various means of fixing the ssh problem until I got results. I broke the pogoplug. Now nothing worked. Webmin was gone too.

After a juvenile display of jumping up and down, throwing things, and screaming my rather robust litany of expletives, I decided to see if there was a reprieve. There was. Simply rereading the initial install instructions told me to go to another Linux machine, Download and extract the root filesystem tarball onto a new ext3 partition as the root user. I followed the rest of the instructions as well, put the flash back into the pogoplug and it again worked. No LAMP, Samba or Webmin, but it worked.

I tried using pacman –Syu to update and, to my horror, it only printed a long list of failure to retrieves. Hours of my remaining life were spent in futility. Yes, I am woefully ignorant of Linux. Yes, I am old and have lost many fine braincells to various chemical agents. However, eventually, searching the web led me to the resolv.conf and the revelation that nameserver in Linuxese was the same as DNS server in Windoze. I added

# Google DNS only because I can remember it
Nameserver 8.8.8.8
Nameserver 8.8.4.4

to /etc/resolve.conf.

Finally, pacman found the updates and promptly updated. I rebooted and broke my pogo... again.

I started over. I put the rootfs on again. I changed the resolv.conf so pacman would work. I updated using pacman -Syu and, again, the ssh did not work. Pacman finds a conflict with udev and oxnas-udev. You have to resolve it by letting it replace oxnas-udev to continue.

I found out after many failures that even though pacman insisted on that replacement, you need to reinstall the oxnas-udev to get things to work… huh????

pacman -S udev-oxnas

It still didn’t fix things. Ssh refused to start. Not being very smart, I iterated many times through the above procedure with minor alterations, each time failing exactly the same way (isn’t that the definition of madness???).

Since Webmin had worked even when ssh had failed, I decided to install Webmin after loading a new rootfs, but before updating. It worked. After doing another update, I could at least communicate with the pogo. I could not do an ssh login, but command shell worked. I tried loading samba but the command shell would not let me answer any questions like “install y/n”. Unless I just wanted a pogoplug that did nothing but talk to Webmin, I would have to do something. What NOT to do was to repeat over and over what I had tried before… which is exactly what I did first.

After days of struggling, I was going through every Webmin menu in desperation. I found under SYSTEM | PACMAN a very interesting button labeled “RUN SYSTEM UPGRADE” with a very enlightening tag below that read “Runs the system upgrade”. Dare I press??? Seeing as suicide appeared to be my only other option, I dared. Lines of text appeared much in the way the system had broken before. I prepared my hari kari sword, tied my head with a white handkerchief and waited.

It stopped. Webmin still worked. I brought up the command shell and typed the dreaded “reboot”. The little green light on the front extinguished, then fluttered madly for a bit. I got out my stainless steel pan to hold my innerds after using the sword. Mustn’t leave a mess for others. I looked back over at the pogo and the green light was a solid glow. It booted. I was surprised, but I didn’t resheath yet.

Webmin worked. Ok, been here before. I ssh in using PuTTY. OMG!!!!!!! It worked. I loaded Samba… ditto… LAMP… I put the sword away, placed the gut pan closeby for any future needs. I left the handkerchief in place. I had a number of potent potables later. The headband helped.

BTW, I never did get NTP to work. It is running. I have it in rc.conf but it never actually works. After all my problems, I choose to just set time manually. Would love a solution some day though.

[Geoff]

Whenever I have had trouble with openntpd, the problem always turned out to be that /etc/resolv.conf had wrong DNS servers listed, so that no ntp servers could be located. If you're using dhcp to connect with your router, then by default the dhcpcd daemon requests the addresses of DNS servers from the router and then updates /etc/resolv.conf with the results. Perhaps your router is not providing IP addresses of suitable DNS servers. For example, my router offers itself (192.168.0.1) as a DNS server, but then fails to provide reliable DNS service. If this is a problem, you can hard-code the IP addresses of known DNS servers into /etc/resolv.conf. Then you can prevent dhcpcd from updating /etc/resolv.conf by changing the contents of /etc/conf.d/dhcpcd to DHCPCD_ARGS="-q -C resolv.conf" (check "man dhcpcd" for more ideas).

[darth]

Thanks Geoff, I did add the Google DNS servers to resolv.conf

Nameserver 8.8.8.8
Nameserver 8.8.4.4

with no success. Can you recommend a better choice? BTW, I set up the pogoplug with static ip. Do I need to switch back to openntp? I switched to ntp when openntp didn't work for me.

I appreciate your help. I will look into your suggestions.

[WarheadsSE]

namespace or nameserver ?