[gentoo-user] SSH/SSH2 hosed, partially fixed, some rubble remains

[Kevin O'Gorman]

I've been using ssh and/or ssh2 daemons on this gentoo system for so long I've forgotten
how I had it set up.  Now it's broken, and I have no idea how it got that way.

At first, it was just taking a long time to connect to this system (home) from work and ask
for a password.  Now it is still slow, but it just does not respond at all after the password is
entered.  Also at first, I imagined that I was really having a problem relating to my domain
registration being changed, but now that has pretty much settled down.  To make things
just a bit more difficult, I've been too busy surviving a car crash and dealing with associated
medical issues to pay enough attention to this.

Anyway, here is some of what I find in the rubble:
I have both
     /etc/init.d/sshd
and /etc/init.d/sshd2

I can start and stop sshd, but not sshd2, which complains it's not configured.  File
timestamps indicate that sshd2 stuff has not changed since some time in 2004.
Moreover, "equery belongs" cannot locate any package that owns the sshd2 files.
The sshd files belong to  net-misc/openssh-4.3_p2-r1.

AHAH!  I've already solved part of the problem, because when I start sshd, I get this:

treat init.d # ./sshd start
ldap_simple_bind_s(): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
[LDAP] could not initialize ldap connection
 * Starting sshd ...
ldap_simple_bind_s(): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
[LDAP] could not initialize ldap connection                                                                                                   [ ok ]
treat init.d #

This baffled me a bit.  I'm not aware of having or running or using any LDAP server.
I never have. I notice that there are some LDAP-related things in  sshd_config.

SOLVED speed problems when I commented these out.  There's still a mystery to
me though. I'm quite sure I did not change them myself and the last emerge was
2 years ago according to /var/log/emerge/log.  What I may have done is to adjust X11
forwarding.

STILL TROUBLING:
why did LDAP get turned on?  Whodunnit?
why do I have orphaned sshd2 things?

STILL BROKEN:
Although I can now "ssh" to my system, with no noticeable delays, I cannot "scp" because
it still hangs after the password is entered.  (I can just ssh and then do the scp "backwards",
however).

Can anyone help me debug this?  What else should I be looking at?

--
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD