I used unison to synchronize my laptop with my home computer under opensuse 11.3.
Yesterday I switched to opensuse 11.4 (new install) on my laptop, unison was still working fom my home computer - I’m not using it the other way.
Today I switched to opensuse 11.4 on my home computer (new install). Afterwards I couldn’t get a connection using unison.
sshd and firewall seem to be ok: ssh works both ways.
Testing in the beginning I found in /var/log/warn the message “gkr-pam: couldn’t get the password from user: Conversation error” and “pam_unix2(sshd:auth): conversation failed”, testing now, these messeages don’t appear any more.
Any suggestions?
Looks like a problem with ssh, not unison .
Can you ssh from one computer to the other ? and the other way around ?
I’m afraid not. As I said: ssh works both ways.
On 2011-03-15 21:36, A Achilles wrote:
> Any suggestions?
A wild guess. Open a terminal, and issue:
SSH_AUTH_SOCK="" unison
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Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Maybe this helps: Unison did not work for me either, since the dialogue window to enter my ssh password did not show up after selecting the Unison profile. I did not see any error messages at all, just nothing.
Just randomly, I disabled the following two settings in the unison configuration file (.unison/[profile].prop):
# Do not display the "CONTACTING SERVER" message
#contactquietly = true
# Do not ask the obviuous
#auto = true
I works then, and enabling them produces the old problem again. I have no idea why this affects whether or not the ssh password dialogue is shown or not, though.
Before updating to 11.4, I used the same version of unison (2.27) and I had not touched the .prop file in quite a while, working reliably for many months.
Thanks, but doesn’t help.
unison still inidcates “Contacting server…” forever without asking for the password.
On both machines unison is working correct if used locally.
On both machines ssh can be used to logon to the user on the other machine - that account which is used by unison.
sorry for bothering all of you,
after installing unison_2.40.61 from Index of /repositories/network/openSUSE_Factory my problems were gone
Now mine stopped working, without me changing anything (knowingly). Exactly the same problem: contacting server forever. SSH works just fine.
Could this be a Firewall problem or AppArmor or something other security related which might prevent Unison from work?
Unfortunately, I cannot update Unison on the other device, so I cannot update to the Factory version.
On 2011-03-19 14:06, STurtle wrote:
>
> Now mine stopped working, without me changing anything (knowingly).
> Exactly the same problem: contacting server forever. SSH works just
> fine.
You could define verbose sshd on the server, and analyze the log.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Well, and we’re not supposed to update from a Factory repo, as it is obviously dangerous !
Getting single package from factory is less dangerous then simple keeping factory active all the time. But you still can pull dependencies for that single package that can damage your version so care needs to be made. Don’t pull in that app if it wants to also replace half your system 
In my environment it was definitely not a Firewall problem.
And sorry, I didn’t say you have to take the factory version! I just wanted to say that my problems are ok at the time with the factory version.
I retrieved the old unison binary that I was using with 11.3 right before the update to 11.4 from my backup archive, but the problem persists with this binary. So I don’t think the problem is directly the fault of unison.
I will try the suggestions with the verbose ssh log tomorrow then. It is really strange that it worked for 3-4 days, and now fails consistently. Of course, it didn’t work initially either, but apparently my tinkering with the .prop file was just a meaningless coincidence then.
I am quite unnerved by going without a backup for over a week now. 
After having installed openSuse 11.4 on my client and server machines I experience exactly the same problems with unison, ssh works fine. Having read your postings I am sure now, that unison version 2.32.52 is the culprit.
I would like to try out your modifications to the unison configuration file: where should I look for this “prop” file: there is no such file in directory ~/.unison
On 2011-06-18 20:36, FranzPolster wrote:
> I am sure now, that unison version 2.32.52 is the
> culprit.
So, update it. You can install 2.40.63 from the repo.
Caveat: you need the same version in both sides.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
I read what you write and feel strange now since i have been using 2.32.52 without any problem for two month…
On 2011-06-19 08:36, Christophe deR wrote:
>
> I read what you write and feel strange now since i have been using
> 2.32.52 without any problem for two month…
The version 11.4 came with would simply stall at “connecting”, waiting for
ever and not connecting.
Known bug solved by upgrading it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
That sounds weird to me since i use the 2.32.52 version that comes with 11.4, and i haven’t had any hickups till now.
The only problem, that i sometimes have, is the message claiming that some profiles have a / in its path, and i solve it by launching unison via CLI .
On 2011-06-19 22:06, Christophe deR wrote:
>
> That sounds weird to me since i use the 2.32.52 version that comes with
> 11.4, and i haven’t had any hickups till now.
Well, you have been lucky. I have read several reports to the contrary.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)