OpenSSH 3.6.1p1 on NCR MP-RAS v4.3, several weird terminal proble ms

[Jay Libove]

I tried the suggested config.h modification of

 #define STREAMS_PUSH_ACQUIRES_CTTY 1

 .. and it seems to have fixed all of the problems that I reported below
(^C killing the session, logging out not fully closing the connection,
lack of job control, and command line pipes being broken).


So, in addition to the one includes.h diff that I included below to get
the SSH rand helper to compile (or something prettier that accomplishes
the same effect), something needs to add STREAMS_PUSH_ACQUIRES_CTTY for
NCR MP-RAS systems.

`uname` output on this system is not very conclusive:

$ uname -a
dwtest905 SMP090-5 4.0 3.0 4400 Pentium III(TM)-ISA/PCI

This tells us the configured node name (dwtest905), something which is
maybe a cluster name (SMP090-5), a release (4.0) and version (3.0), a
hardware indicator (4400), and a processor/bus architecture (Pentium
III(TM)-ISA/PCI).  None of this screams "NCR", though the configure script
seems to use the 4400 (as 3[34]00) as its indicator. Some better way of
identifying the NCR MP-RAS platform might be in order too.

Thanks for the assistance!
-Jay Libove, CISSP
Delta Air Lines
libove at felines.org


On Tue, 8 Apr 2003, Jay Libove wrote:

> Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 14:24:10 -0400
> From: Jay Libove <libove at felines.org>
> To: openssh-unix-dev at mindrot.org
> Subject: OpenSSH 3.6.1p1 on NCR MP-RAS v4.3, several weird terminal proble ms
>
> I compiled OpenSSH 3.6.1p1 on NCR MP-RAS v4.3 (or at least
> "uname -a"'s output of 4.0.3.0 suggests v4.3, I'm not positive).
>
> I was able to compile zlib (1.1.4) and openssl (0.9.7a) with little
> trouble.
>
> OpenSSH took hand-hacking the includes.h file as follows:
>
> diff -cr openssh-3.6.1p1/includes.h
> openssh-3.6.1p1-customized/includes.h
> *** openssh-3.6.1p1/includes.h  Sun Oct 20 20:50:26 2002
> --- openssh-3.6.1p1-customized/includes.h       Mon Apr  7 17:32:04 2003
> ***************
> *** 104,110 ****
> --- 104,114 ----
>   #ifdef HAVE_SYS_TIME_H
>   # include <sys/time.h> /* For timersub */
>   #endif
> + #define _XOPEN_SOURCE
> + #define _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED 1
>   #include <sys/resource.h>
> + #undef _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
> + #undef _XOPEN_SOURCE
>   #ifdef HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H
>   # include <sys/select.h>
>   #endif
>
> Other than that, things *appeared* to compile and install fine.
>
> Then I logged in to this NCR MP-RAS machine using SSH (from Van Dyke's
> SecureCRT v4.0.4) and saw this:
>
> $ man ls | more
> Cannot reopen stdout: No such device or address
>
> $ PAGER=more
> $ export PAGER
> $ man ls
> Cannot reopen stdout: No such device or address
> Cannot reopen stdout: No such device or address
>
>
> Even worse than the pipe problem: Control-C ANYWHERE - at the command
> prompt, while a command is running, inside 'vi', anywhere - will kill
> the
> SSH connection completely! Ick...
>
> $ ssh -l username MP-RAS_host
> username at MP-RAS_host's password: ********
> <login banners and motd>
> $ ^C
> Connection to MP-RAS_host closed by remote host. Connection to
> MP-RAS_host
> closed.
>
>
> One more thing: on exiting the shell normally (pressing Control-D), the
> SSH session does not fully close; I see "^D" displayed in the remote
> shell
> and the shell has exited, but the actual remote connection from the SSH
> client to the SSH server remains open until killed.
>
> $ ssh -l username MP-RAS_host
> username at MP-RAS_host's password: ********
> <login banners and motd>
> $ ^D
> <cursor goes down to the beginning of the next line .. and just sits
> there
> for longer than I'm willing to be patient, until I enter <CR>~. to close
> it manually>
>
>
> There's no job control when logged in under SSH:
>
> $ ed
> ^Z
> ?
> q
> $
>
>  .. as compared to under telnet:
>
> $ ed
> ^Z
> [1] + Stopped
> $ fg
> ed
> q
> $
>
>
>
> I logged in with telnet in another session (also from SecureCRT v4.0.4)
> and compared some things:
>
> * /dev/pts/xx have the same owner, group, and modes in the two sessions
> * environments differ slightly:
>   + Only the telnet session has
>     HZ=100
>     TIMEOUT=0
>   + The PATH is slighly different, with the SSH session adding the
>     binary directory where OpenSSH is installed (/opt/openssh/bin),
>     and also inserting /bin (which the telnet session lacked)
>     SSH:
> PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/openssh/bin:/usr/ccs/bin
>     Telnet: PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/ccs/bin
>   + Only the SSH session contains:
>     SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/xx
>     SSH_CONNECTION="srcIP srcport dstIP dstport"
>     SSH_CLIENT="srcIP srcport dstport"
>     USER=jlibove
>   + The MAIL variable in the SSH session has an extra '/' in it:
>     MAIL=/var/mail//jlibove
>     compared to the telnet session
>     MAIL=/var/mail/jlibove
>
> None of these seem critical, though the MAIL setting does imply some
> additional misunderstanding of NCR MP-RAS' peculiarities in by the
> OpenSSH
> code.
>
> I compared the output of "stty -a", and found the only difference to be
> that the telnet session thought of itself as being on a 9600 baud
> terminal, while the SSH session thought of itself as 38400 baud.
>
> $ stty -a
> speed 38400 baud;
> rows = 34; columns = 80; ypixels = 0; xpixels = 0;
> intr = ^c; quit = ^|; erase = ^h; kill = ^u;
> eof = ^d; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>; swtch = <undef>;
> start = ^q; stop = ^s; susp = ^z; dsusp = <undef>;
> rprnt = ^r; flush = ^o; werase = ^w; lnext = ^v;
> -parenb -parodd cs8 -cstopb hupcl cread -clocal -loblk -parext
> -ignbrk brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl -iuclc
> ixon -ixany -ixoff -imaxbel
> isig icanon -xcase echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh
> -tostop echoctl -echoprt echoke -defecho -flusho -pendin iexten
> opost -olcuc onlcr -ocrnl -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel tab3
>
>
>
> I have confirmed that these same problems occur when the client is
> OpenSSH v3.1p1 on a Linux machine, so it is not related to the SecureCRT
> client - it is definitely the way the OpenSSH code compiles/runs on the
> NCR MP-RAS server.
>
>
> Ideas and previous experience in getting OpenSSH to work correctly on
> NCR
> MP-RAS will be most welcome!
>
> Thanks
> -Jay Libove, CISSP
> libove at felines.org
>