dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server doesn't ask questions again

[Thomas Bechtold]

openssh-server does provide a couple of configuration options:

[~]$ sudo debconf-get-selections |grep openssh-server
openssh-server openssh-server/listenstream-may-fail error
openssh-server openssh-server/password-authentication boolean true
openssh-server openssh-server/permit-root-login boolean true

I want to change those options now interactively but nothing I tried worked and showed a dialog:

[~]$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure -p low openssh-server
Warning: Stopping ssh.service, but it can still be activated by:
  ssh.socket
rescue-ssh.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.

[~]$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure -p low --force --frontend dialog openssh-server
Warning: Stopping ssh.service, but it can still be activated by:
  ssh.socket
rescue-ssh.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.

But the documentation (https://manpages.debian.org/testing/debconf-doc/debconf.7.en.html#Reconfiguring_packages) does state that those commands should ask those questions again.

p.s. also tried with a lxc debian-sid container and had the same problem there.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
Package: openssh-server 1:9.3p1-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-5.5-generic 6.5.0
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs
ApportVersion: 2.27.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Sep 29 10:35:33 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-05-10 (142 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" - Release amd64 (20230418)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: openssh
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to mantic on 2023-07-19 (71 days ago)

[Thomas Bechtold (toabctl)]

looks like there's no db_input/db_go call in the openssh-server.config file. Is that by intention?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

> looks like there's no db_input/db_go call in the openssh-server.config file. Is that by intention?

You're right. Sorry, I knew this but had forgotten it.

So openssh-server itself does not ever prompt for either of these settings in mantic, which means there's no risk of dpkg-reconfigure causing confusing behavior vs an sshd_config.d setting. (The debconf settings are still used for special config file merge handling on upgrades.)

In trusty-focal, we call db_input for openssh-server/permit-root-login but not for the password auth setting that you're changing; so again there's no confusing behavior.

Sorry for the distraction.

[Thomas Bechtold (toabctl)]

Ok. Thanks for clarification. With that I think we can continue to get https://code.launchpad.net/~toabctl/livecd-rootfs/+git/livecd-rootfs-1/+merge/452352 merged.

But I still find this behavior confusing/buggy. I can still use "debconf-show openssh-server" and see the password-authentication entry. And that entry is out-of-sync with the real configuration. That's a bug imo given that the behavior is not documented in README.Debian.gz .