Telnet not working 2

[dchristensen]

Some how my telnet server has become broken. I have double checked to see that the service is enabled in the xinet.d directory. When I restart xinetd, then try to do a "telnet localhost", I am still seeing the access denied message.

Is there a log file being created somewhere that I can look at to see what the problem might be?

Any help would really be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[dbase77]

Hi,

1) DO you have firewall?
2) Check /var/log/messages for any outstanding error.
3) type netstat -a | grep telnet or netstat -an | grep 23(make sure your telnet is LISTENING)

regards,
feroz

 

[dchristensen]

Thanks for the reply!

1) no, This server is inside our corporate firewall and I haven't set up the firewall for this server.
2) I'll check the other items when I get to the office this morning.

Thanks again!

 

[dchristensen]

Okay, I've checked the messages files. I'm not really sure what I should be looking for there. Here is an excerpt from the file this morning after restarting xinetd. Also, I did the netstat commands and didn't receive results from either of them so I'm assuming that telnet is NOT listening.

Now just have to figure out why it's died...

I was going to try to ftp the messages file so that I could cut and paste the last 20 lines or so into this reply, but not able to ftp any more either. I'll dig further into the messages to see if there's an indication of a problem.

Thanks again!

 

[dbase77]

Hi,

If you dont get anything back from netstat command, I suggest you double check your xinetd config file again. Make sure it enable in telnet file (/etc/xinet.d). Restart as usual xinetd. You can use script provided or just kill -HUP xinetd_pid.

is this box 24/7 online?

regards,
feroz

 

[dbase77]

HI,

Forgot one thing. Can you check if telnetd program exist on your system. I wonder if somebody accidentally delete the package or change the binary path. If you still stuck, I suggest you re-install the package.

regards,
feroz

 

[dchristensen]

Yes, this server (development test server) is running 24/7. We hit it here during the day, then I'll hit it from home using VPN. Not overly taxed, but still important that it's running every day.

I'll also try to capture several lines of the messages file to include in the next message, too.

 

[dchristensen]

Here's the last few lines from the messages file after I performed a restart through the service manager:
Apr 15 09:31:22 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 xinetd[21832]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 xinetd[21832]: {general_handler} (21832) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 xinetd[21832]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 10:42:13 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 10:43:30 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)

Here also is the configuration file from /etc/xinet.d/telnet:

# default: on
# description: The telnet server serves telnet sessions; it uses # unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
service telnet
{
disable = no
flags = REUSE
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
log_on_failure += USERID
}

You can see that it's enabled here, but I think the issue is somewhere else.

 

[dchristensen]

In the lines from the messages file, it has a line that says "bad operator for attribute: ;[line=11]. I have no idea where to look for that attribute. Any ideas?

 

[fluid11]

Make sure that xinetd is running...

ps -ef | grep xinetd

Also, double check that your not running any firewall rules....

iptables -L


ChrisP

 

[dchristensen]

ChrisP,

Here's the result of your suggestions:

[root@bintls3 root]# ps -ef | grep xinetd
root 22333 22299 0 11:51 pts/1 00:00:00 grep xinetd
[root@bintls3 root]# iptables -L
modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
iptables v1.2.5: can't initialize iptables table `filter': iptables who? (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.
[root@bintls3 root]#

It's showing that xinetd is running (right?). Not sure what the rest of the messages are telling me.

 

[fluid11]

No, xinetd is NOT running. Thats your problem right there. Let's see the output of "/sbin/service xinetd restart". Do this twice.

ChrisP

 

[dchristensen]

Here's the console messages:

[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd start
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd status
xinetd dead but pid file exists
[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd start
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd status
xinetd dead but pid file exists
[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# /sbin/service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]#

 

[dchristensen]

Okay, here's the output from both sets of instructions:

[root@bintls3 root]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# tail -20 /var/log/messages
Apr 15 12:58:42 BINTLS3 xinetd[22826]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 12:58:42 BINTLS3 xinetd[22826]: {general_handler} (22826) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 12:58:42 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 12:58:42 BINTLS3 xinetd[22826]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 12:58:42 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: {general_handler} (22855) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 12:59:10 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 12:59:10 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 13:21:58 BINTLS3 samba(pam_unix)[12859]: session closed for user dchrist
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: {general_handler} (23200) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
[root@bintls3 root]# rpm -V xinetd
[root@bintls3 root]# updatedb
[root@bintls3 root]# locate xinetd.pid
/var/run/xinetd.pid
[root@bintls3 root]# rm -f /var/run/xinetd.pid
[root@bintls3 root]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# ps -ef | grep xinetd
root 23267 22299 0 14:10 pts/1 00:00:00 grep xinetd
[root@bintls3 root]# tail -20 /var/log/messages
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: {general_handler} (22855) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd[22855]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 12:58:46 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 12:59:10 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 12:59:10 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 13:21:58 BINTLS3 samba(pam_unix)[12859]: session closed for user dchrist
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: {general_handler} (23200) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23200]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:03:59 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: {general_handler} (23254) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
[root@bintls3 root]#

 

[fluid11]

...(my previous post was deleted so I'm reposting here - it was above the last post)


Its not starting at all, see the [FAILED] on the second start?  Thats why I had you do it twice.  

Run the "service xinetd restart" command again, and then do a "tail -20 /var/log/messages" immediately after and show us the output of the tail command.  

I'm assuming that xinetd was installed from an RPM, so lets check to see if the RPM package is corrupted --> rpm -V xinetd

Run "updatedb" and then "locate xinetd.pid" after it finishes.  It will probably tell you that the file exists in /var/run/xinetd.pid.  Remove this file and then try and start the xinetd service...

rm -f /var/run/xinetd.pid
service xinetd restart
ps -ef | grep xinetd

ChrisP

 

[fluid11]

Run this and tell us whether or not it still says "xinetd dead but pid file exists"...

rm -f /var/run/xinetd.pid
service xinetd restart
service xinetd restart

Have you recompiled the kernel by any chance recently? I'm wondering why you are getting all of those module errors. Try running "depmod -a" to create a new modules.dep file.


ChrisP

 

[dchristensen]

I haven't recompiled anything recently. I'm enough of a newbie that I try to work from "out of box" Red Hat distributions (this one is 7.3), plus performing the "up2date" functions to try to keep current on fixes/patches.

The only thing out of the ordinary I've done in the past couple of days is work with an X-windows client so that I could open a X-windows session on my Windows workstation for this server. Don't know if that could have had a contribution to this problem or not.

Here's the results from the last message:

[root@bintls3 root]# depmod -a
depmod: Can't open /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep for writing
[root@bintls3 root]# rm -f /var/run/xinetd.pid
[root@bintls3 root]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 root]# tail -20 /var/logs/message
tail: /var/logs/message: No such file or directory
[root@bintls3 root]# tail -20 /var/log/messages
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: {general_handler} (23254) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd[23254]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:09:56 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:13:59 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 14:13:59 BINTLS3 modprobe: modprobe: Can't open dependencies file /lib/modules/2.4.18-27.7.xsmp/modules.dep (No such file or directory)
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd[23519]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd[23519]: {general_handler} (23519) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd[23519]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: {general_handler} (23548) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
[root@bintls3 root]# ls /lib/modules -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 29 05:32 2.4.18-3debug
[root@bintls3 root]# cd /lib/modules
[root@bintls3 modules]# mkdir 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
[root@bintls3 modules]# ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 15 14:49 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 29 05:32 2.4.18-3debug
[root@bintls3 modules]# cd 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
[root@bintls3 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp]# depmod -a
[root@bintls3 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp]# ls -l
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 15 14:50 modules.dep
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31 Apr 15 14:50 modules.generic_string
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 73 Apr 15 14:50 modules.ieee1394map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 81 Apr 15 14:50 modules.isapnpmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29 Apr 15 14:50 modules.parportmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 Apr 15 14:50 modules.pcimap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24 Apr 15 14:50 modules.pnpbiosmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189 Apr 15 14:50 modules.usbmap
[root@bintls3 2.4.18-27.7.xsmp]# cd /
[root@bintls3 /]# rm -f /var/run/xinetd.pid
[root@bintls3 /]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 /]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]
[root@bintls3 /]# ps -ef | grep xinetd
root 23642 22299 0 14:51 pts/1 00:00:00 grep xinetd
[root@bintls3 /]# tail -20 /var/logs/messages
tail: /var/logs/messages: No such file or directory
[root@bintls3 /]# tail -20 /var/log/messages
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd[23519]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:46:40 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: {general_handler} (23548) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd[23548]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:46:44 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 xinetd[23607]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 xinetd[23607]: {general_handler} (23607) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 xinetd[23607]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:50:49 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Apr 15 14:50:58 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd shutdown failed
Apr 15 14:50:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23636]: Bad operator for attribute: ; [line=11]
Apr 15 14:50:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23636]: {general_handler} (23636) Unexpected signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)
Apr 15 14:50:59 BINTLS3 last message repeated 9 times
Apr 15 14:50:59 BINTLS3 xinetd[23636]: {bad_signal} Received 10 signals in 1 seconds. Exiting...
Apr 15 14:50:59 BINTLS3 xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
[root@bintls3 /]#


As you can see, I discovered that the directory where it was looking for the Modules.dep file didn't exist. I created the directory, then re-ran the depmod -a command which created the files. Restarting xinetd didn't cause any of the dependency issues that we've seen previously.

It still keeps complaining about an invalid operator for an attribute on line=11. Any idea where I need to go look for that?

Thanks for all your time and trouble!!

 

[fluid11]

Your kernel modules are missing. I bet that when you ran the up2date utility it only updated the kernel and didn't install the modules to go along with it. Run "rpm -qa | grep kernel" and let's see which kernel RPMS are installed. Also, let me see "uname -r".
Delete the directory you created under /lib/modules.

Have you ever compiled a kernel before? If so, I would recommend recompiling a new kernel and to make sure you install the appropriate modules with it. If not, I would go to ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.3/en/os/i386/, and download and install all of the kernel*.rpm files.


ChrisP

 

[dchristensen]

I'll work on that right away and will let you know how things work out.

Thanks again for your time and trouble!!

 

[dbase77]

HI,

Next time dont upgrade using up2date program. Sometimes it breaks certain application. Only upgrade what you need and use by referring to redhat update page.

About your telnet problem, try what fluid11 told you. If you still stuck, try remove the xinetd package and telnetd package. Reinstall again.

To remove package :

rpm -e xinetd
rpm -e telnetd

To install package:

rpm -ivh xinetd
rpm -ivh telnetd

You can download the package from internet or get it from redhat CD.

I wonder if these problem associate with each other. Sometimes it does though. Let us know how you doing.

regards,
feroz