[Bug 269954] [NEW] ssh -X breaks Xauthority on NFS mounted home dir

[Brendan Powers]

Public bug reported:

When using an nfs mounted home directory, using ssh to connect and run a
X11 app from the nfs server causes X applications to break.

Steps to reproduct the problem
1) have to computers(A and B) with ubuntu 8.04 installed
2) Export /home from computer A, and mount it on computer B
3) Create a user that has the same username, home directory, and UID on both computers
4) Log into computer B with the user that was just created, and ssh into box A and run an X application (ssh -X boxa xterm)
5) In another terminal, try to run another X app on box b as the same user.

What is supposed to happen: The X app on box B runs properly
What actually happens: The X app will fail with an error like "Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server" about 50% of the time

This can be fixed by running "cat ~/.Xauthority".
Also sometimes running "ls -al ~/.Xauthority" will result in a "stale nfs file handle" error.

I assume this is because the Xauthority file is removed, and then a new
one is created when ssh sets up credentials on computer A. This causes
the file inode number to change, causing the stale file handle errors on
computer B. However, this problem did not occur in ubuntu feisty. I
havn't tried it with gutsy. I've tried installing the packages for xauth
and libxau6 from feisty, but it did not fix the problem. So I'm guessing
its an ssh issue, but i could be wrong.

Someone reported the same issue on the ubuntu mailing list, but didn't seem to file a bug report that i could find.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2008-July/152242.html

I'm using ubuntu 8.04.1, also had the same problem with 8.04.0. It worked fine in ubuntu 7.04.
Package Versions
==========
openssh-client: 1:4.7p1-8ubuntu1.2
openssh-server: 1:4.7p1-8ubuntu1.2
xauth: 1:1.0.2-2
libxau6: 1:1.0.3-2

** Affects: openssh (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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ssh -X breaks Xauthority on NFS mounted home dir
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/269954
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