> No offense, but this is what learning how openssh-server works is all
> about.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Certainly not everyone enjoys
seeing how every config file works. Some admins and I'd say the vast
majority of users just want things to work. To repeat an analogy I
heard recently, some people train horses and some people ride them.
Maybe you do both, but not everybody does, and not everybody wants to.

> Here, I'll even show you how to get sshd to listen on 2 ports:
>
>
> /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
>
> Port 22
> Port 2222

Sure, but this setup doesn't prevent h4xorz in the far east from
breaking into my server on 13-year-old Kevin's account using his weak
password. I really couldn't care less if my clients access the server
on port 22 and my admins access it remotely on port 22, so long as my
clients' access is limited to the local interface. Show me how to
disable password authentication on the WAN interface, or how to apply
the AllowUsers option to only the WAN interface and I'll drop my case.

The fact remains, and I don't see you acknowledging this fact yet,
that many ltsp admins need ssh for two very different things: thin
client access and remote admin access. At present, the only way to
provide for these two needs simultaneously and securely is to run 2
instances of ssh on 2 different ports using 2 different config files.
This can be done, but frankly it's just not simple enough.

> - Creating a new package and maintaining it for simply offering a
> default alternate configuration wouldn't fly with any sane maintainer.

As I've pointed out, ltsp is an alternate use of ssh, and as Rob
pointed out, ltsp requires that ssh be configured in a way that is
simply unacceptable for traditional use, i.e., remote (open) access.
And I disagree with your argument that no sane maintainer would
maintain an alternate configuration. Taken to its logical extreme,
your argument says that no sane maintainer would work on Ubuntu when
there is already Debian, or Debian when there is Red Hat, or Red Hat
when there is Windows, or Windows when there is a typewriter and
calculator.

I appreciate what package maintainers do. Every time I install or
upgrade Ubuntu at home I have to go to Brother's web site, download
the (multiple) .deb drivers for my printer, install them with a bunch
of command-line overrides, then run a bunch of other ubuntu-specific
fixups to make said drivers work with my system. It's a pain in the
arse, but I don't complain to Brother, because how many printer
manufacturers provide GPL drivers? But thank heaven for Saïvann
Carignan who created an ubuntu package called
brother-cups-wrapper-extra. Thanks to his work and others, getting my
printer to work on a fresh install now takes 30 seconds instead of 30
minutes. He didn't give my printer drivers any functionality that they
didn't already have, he just gave me and every other Ubuntu-Brother
owner an alternate configuration, a really handy time and
sanity-saving tool for making them work.

I'm not criticising the ltsp team. I love what they provide. And I'm
not asking anybody--I hope--to change the way your ssh server or ltsp
server operates. I simply think it would be a boon to the project to
remove some of the pain in creating what I suspect would be a fairly
popular scenario among ltsp admins and facilitate the ability to
access the server remotely without compromising the very good security
provided by the OpenSSH server.

db
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