Login Timeout Problems

[Pete Nesbitt]

On February 26, 2004 10:26 am, Kevin Goddard wrote:
> First, I apologize for immediatly subscribing to this list and then
> emailing it, not really knowing if this is the appropriate place. However,
> I am kind of desperate for some help and this was the best bet I could
> find. I am running two machines with RedHat 9.0.  Both of them will log
> out an idle user after 131 seconds.  This is less then helpful, as I tend
> to login to a machine via SSH and move between windows.  Also, it will
> even log out a SCP or FTP connection.  For the life of me I cannot find
> where I can increase (or remove) this idle timeout. If anyone can point me
> in some direction, it would be really helpful.
> Thanks
> Kevin Goddard


Hi Kevin,

Is this only via remote logins or does it also happen at a console?

131 seconds, thats pretty quick. It sounds more like a networking issue than a 
system thing simply because if you changed the settings to time out an 
account on both systems, I'm sure you'd know it.
sshd has "keep alive" on by default in /etc/ssh/sshd_config

account timeout is set in /etc/profile or ~/.bash_profile using the var 
"TMOUT=xxxx", with xxxx being the number of seconds of inactivity before 
logout. It is not set by default (so won't time-out) but you can add it. 

If it is only via remote access with ssh etc and not affecting local logins, 
you could try:
ssh localhost
ssh to a third host
ssh from a third host
if possible remove any hubs/switches and use a crossover cable to test
  (or try alternate ports in hub/switch)
telnet (just to test)
do not su to another user once logged in (?)
flakey nic

There is likely a single item causing the failure so try and bypass one thing 
at a time. A third system would really help find fault point. Sounds painful 
but you need to isolate things to find the problem. (and keep good notes for 
a truth-table of what combo's work and what fails)  

Sorry I don't have anything more specific, but hopefully it gives you some 
things to look at.
-- 
Pete Nesbitt, rhce