Firstly, i must inform you that i have tried my current set-up on two systems.
The first system is basically a standard linux install on a hard-drive. Linux 2.6, OpenSSH 4.3. On this medium, I am able to use publick key auth, and do port forwarding/tunneling. No firewall is in the way. It works. Easy. I am able to authenticate, create a tunnel, and encrypt my connections to the irc server also running on this install. The second system is a bit different; it contains all the same daemons, kernel, and config files. I am able to authenticate into the system, but when i go to create a tunnel, i am given trouble. I think the problem is to do with the fact that the system is running off an ISO; there is 1 ramdisk for the initrd, 1 ramdisk for the basic root system (this is mounted read write, but permissions are set that only root can write here), and all other programs/files are on a CD rom. (read only). I CAN MAKE A TUNNEL, BUT NOT CONNECT TO IT. A view of tcpdump shows the client sending a PSH flag, and the server responding with an ACK. thats it. nothing more. I then started sshd -ddd on this system, and when i try connecting to the tunnel, i am given this error: debug1: channel 0: new [unknown (remote did not supply name)] I dont think this is a config file error at all. Someone please help me with this. Im stumped. I dont seem to be missing any libraries, and i cant determine with strace what files sshd are trying to access when tunnel connection is attempted. If you would like to try your short at the ISO yourself, please let me know. Thanks.
