Hello,

The last fews weeks, I've been having issues using SSH on
one of our servers.

I can't think of any changes to the system - no updates, etc...
OS - Linux version 2.6.18-4-686 (Debian 2.6.18.dfsg.1-12etch2)

I received the following error when trying to use SCP or SFTP -
command-line: line 0: Bad configuration option: PermitLocalCommand

I looked at the sshd_config file and it was edited on 12/12. I did not
edit the file and no one else has access to this server (at least, no
one officially has access). Every line in the config was commented out.
I tried adding PermitLocalCommand and uncommenting the config file, but to
be honest I'm not sure what needed uncommented. After researching the
error for a few days on google, I tried to uninstall and reinstall SSH.
The uninstall went fine, but when reinstalling I receive the following
error -

Unpacking openssh-client (from .../openssh-client_1%3a4.3p2-9etch3_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/openssh-client_1%3a4.3p2-9etch3_i386.deb (--unpack):
unable to make backup link of `./usr/bin/scp' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Selecting previously deselected package openssh-server.
Unpacking openssh-server (from .../openssh-server_1%3a4.3p2-9etch3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package ssh.
Unpacking ssh (from .../ssh_1%3a4.3p2-9etch3_all.deb) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/openssh-client_1%3a4.3p2-9etch3_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I've tried to change permissions on the bin file, as root, but receive
chmod: changing permissions of `/usr/bin/scp': Operation not permitted

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Ily

Please post the output of

Thanks.

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 43568 2008-09-15 15:57 /usr/bin/scp

Thank You.

And the output of 'mount'?

I wasn't sure what command you wanted to me to use -

If I try to mount the partition /usr/ is on I get the following -

mount /dev/sda2
mount: /dev/sda2 already mounted or /usr busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sda2 is already mounted on /usr

If there is a different command I should be using, please let
me know. Thanks

Just run mount on its own, w/o any parameters. I'd like to
see the options with which the filesystem has been mounted.

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda7 on /home type xfs (rw,usrquota,grpquota)
/dev/sda6 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda3 on /var type ext3 (rw)

Thanks for the follow up

So it's not a mount-option that denies the permission.

What about an lsattr on the file-system? What user are
you doing this all as?

lsattr -v -d /usr/bin/scp
914888470 s---ia------------ /usr/bin/scp

lsattr -v -d /dev/sda2
lsattr: Operation not supported While reading flags on /dev/sda2

Thank you SO much! I wasn't aware of the lsattr command, however, when I went to man
the entry before issuing the command I became aware of 'chattr'. Which lead me to
remove the option that apt could not change/modify the file. Again, thank you.
I've successfully reinstalled ssh and all is working well!

Awesome - well do; glad I could be of some assistance ;}