[SOLVED] Can't Start SSHD

[alexanderkmoore]

Open SuSE 12.2
Can someone give me some insight into what's happening here?
It's pretty difficult to pull up anything relevant in Google.
Most results are tutorials on how to get SSH started if your host keys have changed, or copying keys over with ssh-copy-id.

Rebooting and giving it another go doesn't seem to be working.

box-of-doom:/home/inkzoid/.ssh # rcsshd start
redirecting to systemctl
box-of-doom:/home/inkzoid/.ssh # rcsshd status
redirecting to systemctl
sshd.service - OpenSSH Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:11:24 -0400; 3s ago
Process: 4384 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sshd -D $SSHD_OPTS (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Process: 4381 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/sshd-gen-keys-start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/sshd.service

[alexanderkmoore]

Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4967]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4967]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4967]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4972]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4972]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4972]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4977]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4977]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4977]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4982]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4982]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom sshd[4982]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:07 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4988]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4988]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4988]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4993]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_keu
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4993]: Disabling protocol version 2. Could not load host key
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom sshd[4993]: sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
Oct 19 21:00:08 box-of-doom systemd[1]: sshd.service start request repeated too quickly, refusing to start.

[cnamejj]

I've never had to manually create host keys for SSH myself, but the syslog errors are pretty clear about that. I don't know why your system didn't create them for your, or perhaps the files are there but SSHD doesn't like the contents?

But I'd try recreating the host keys if it was my system. Also if you just put the error from your syslog "sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting." in a Google search, the first two results are from the SUSE forum. Check those results, since they are for your OS specifically, and see if they help. One of them was from someone whose system screwed up the creation of host keys resulting in 0 length files. So they appeared to be there, but it was a "light on but nobody home" type situation.

[alexanderkmoore]

So they appeared to be there, but it was a "light on but nobody home" type situation.

Absolutely.
Thanks for the tip - that was in fact the exact string I needed to search. I commented out the offending line of code in my sshd_config and I was good to go.