SLES12: /var/lib/empty is missing, SSHD does not start

[abbbi]

• rear version (/usr/sbin/rear -V): 1.18
• OS version (cat /etc/rear/os.conf or lsb_release -a): SLES12 SP1

by default on SLES12 sshd daemon does not start during recovery because

/var/lib/empty

is missing (/sbin/sshd will complain)
Simply creating the directory fixes this problem. Probably directory should be included during
mkrescue run.

[jsmeix]

It never happened for me.

On all my test systems (in particular on SLE12-SP1)
I have in /etc/rear/local.conf something like

SSH_ROOT_PASSWORD="rear"

and ssh access to the rear recovery system
always "just worked" for me.

@abbbi

Do you have a non-default ssh configuration?

Does in /etc/rear/local.conf something like

COPY_AS_IS=( "${COPY_AS_IS[@]}" /var/lib/empty )

also fix it for you?

[abbbi]

we have set a custom password in local.conf:

SSH_ROOT_PASSWORD="recover"

besides that i used:

COPY_AS_IS=( "${COPY_AS_IS[@]}" /var/lib/empty )

to fix the problem!

[gdha]

@abbbi I've checked our skel tree and skel/default/var/lib/empty does exist, therefore, it should always be present in a rescue environment. I just check a rescue image and /var/lib/empty directory was there. Are you really sure this directory was the issue?

[gdha]

@jsmeix If you could verify on a rescue environment (any SLES I guess) that directoru /var/lib/empty is there by default?

[gdha]

Verified it several times and /var/lib/empty is always present in the rescue image. No need to add it to the COPY_AS_IS array

[jsmeix]

Regarding #864 (comment)
see my #864 (comment)
i.e. it never happened for me and on all my test systems I had
a /var/lib/empty/ directory in the recovery system e.g right now
on SLES12-SP2:

RESCUE d245:~ # ls -ld /var/lib/empty/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Aug 17 13:49 /var/lib/empty/