[tin] how to authenticate NNTP server?
ba...@googlemail.com
Trying to get tin up and running. slrn works on my NNTP server, but despite
having a ~/.newsauth in the exact configuration required by man (5) tin, I
can't read news with that reader.
When I run..
tin -r -q -Q
... tin asks me for my password - or rather, presents me with my password
and I press ENTER. It then asks me for my password, but this field is
empty.
Interestingly enough, even when I copy and paste my password,
authentication still fails. My ~/.newsauth looks like..
my.nntp.server my.password my.username
Could it be something to do with the fact that my 'username' is an e-mail
address and thus has '@' in it? I've tried escaping it, I've tried putting
the password inside double quotes .. nothing seems to work.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.
Keith
>Hi
>Trying to get tin up and running. slrn works on my NNTP server, but despite
>having a ~/.newsauth in the exact configuration required by man (5) tin, I
>can't read news with that reader.
>
>When I run..
>
>tin -r -q -Q
>
>... tin asks me for my password - or rather, presents me with my password
>and I press ENTER. It then asks me for my password, but this field is
>empty.
It should not present you with any prompts at all. Is .newsauth
in your $HOME directory?
ls -lah $HOME/.newsauth
or
ls -lah ~/.newsauth
who is the owner if that file exists?
if you have:
news.newsserver.com mypassword myuse...@domain.com
in .newsauth it should work.
Make sure that the file is readable by the TIN user:
chmod 400 .newsauth
cat ~/.newsauth
should display the contents.
Make sure that you have no other characters in .newsauth like tabs or high
ascii characters. Don't use copy & paste, type in the entire line with a
carriage return.
ba...@googlemail.com
> On 29 Apr 2010 02:56:12 +0200, ba...@googlemail.com wrote:
>
>>Hi
>>Trying to get tin up and running. slrn works on my NNTP server, but despite
>>having a ~/.newsauth in the exact configuration required by man (5) tin, I
>>can't read news with that reader.
>>
>>When I run..
>>
>>tin -r -q -Q
>>
>>... tin asks me for my password - or rather, presents me with my password
>>and I press ENTER. It then asks me for my password, but this field is
>>empty.
>
> It should not present you with any prompts at all. Is .newsauth
> in your $HOME directory?
Yep...
ls -alh $HOME/.newsauth
-rw------- 1 me metoo 33 2010-04-29 03:43 .newsauth
> ls -lah $HOME/.newsauth
> or
> ls -lah ~/.newsauth
>
> who is the owner if that file exists?
Me. Permissions are 0600.
> if you have:
>
> news.newsserver.com mypassword myuse...@domain.com
>
> in .newsauth it should work.
I do have that, but it doesn't work. I'm tearing my hair out here...
> Make sure that the file is readable by the TIN user:
>
> chmod 400 .newsauth
Tried that, no luck.
> cat ~/.newsauth
> should display the contents.
news.server.com gobbledeygook m...@somewhere.com
> Make sure that you have no other characters in .newsauth like tabs or high
> ascii characters. Don't use copy & paste, type in the entire line with a
> carriage return.
I thought it might be something to do with a typo or whatever, but I copied
and pasted the strings _directly_ from the 'nnrpaccess' in my .slrnrc, and
that works perfectly.
:(
Keith
>I thought it might be something to do with a typo or whatever, but I copied
>and pasted the strings _directly_ from the 'nnrpaccess' in my .slrnrc, and
>that works perfectly.
>
>:(
Have you tried removing @ symbol to see if TIN attempts to automatically
log in to the news server with no prompts? If it does so then the @ symbol
is causing the error and you should submit a bug report.
ba...@googlemail.com
I tried to remove the '@' and leave a space. No joy. Then I tried no
space between the user part and the host part ('myaddressserver.com').
Again, that didn't work. Same story for 'myaddress\@server.com', and
'myaddress.server.com'.
I was starting to think that there was something wrong with my password,
but I just installed pan, copied and pasted the same credentials from the
.newsauth file, and it worked first time.
ba...@googlemail.com
Oh, and for info..
tin 1.9.4 release 20090211 ("Rieclachan") May 3 2009 05:43:20
Platform:
OS-Name = "linux-gnu"
Compiler:
CC = "gcc"
CFLAGS = "-g -O2"
CPP = "gcc -E"
CPPFLAGS = "-D_GNU_SOURCE"
Linker and Libraries:
LD = "gcc"
LDFLAGS = "-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions"
LIBS = "-lncursesw -luu -lidn"
PCRE = "7.8 2008-09-05"
Characteristics:
-DEBUG +NNTP_ABLE -NO_POSTING -BROKEN_LISTGROUP +XHDR_XREF
-HAVE_FASCIST_NEWSADMIN +ENABLE_IPV6 -HAVE_COREFILE
-NO_SHELL_ESCAPE -DISABLE_PRINTING -DONT_HAVE_PIPING -NO_ETIQUETTE
+HAVE_LONG_FILE_NAMES +APPEND_PID +HAVE_MH_MAIL_HANDLING
+HAVE_ISPELL +HAVE_METAMAIL +HAVE_SUM
+HAVE_COLOR -HAVE_PGP -HAVE_PGPK +HAVE_GPG
-MIME_BREAK_LONG_LINES +MIME_STRICT_CHARSET +CHARSET_CONVERSION
+MULTIBYTE_ABLE -NO_LOCALE
+USE_CANLOCK -EVIL_INSIDE -FORGERY -TINC_DNS -ENFORCE_RFC1034
-REQUIRE_BRACKETS_IN_DOMAIN_LITERAL -FOLLOW_USEFOR_DRAFT
ba...@googlemail.com
> In <4bd8d92c$1...@news.x-privat.org>, ba...@googlemail.com wrote:
>> Hi
>> Trying to get tin up and running. slrn works on my NNTP server, but despite
>> having a ~/.newsauth in the exact configuration required by man (5) tin, I
>> can't read news with that reader.
>>
>> When I run..
>>
>> tin -r -q -Q
>
> (but shouldn't do any harm).
>
>> ... tin asks me for my password - or rather, presents me with my password
>> and I press ENTER. It then asks me for my password, but this field is
>> empty.
>
> if you see your password in the first prompt something is going
> wrong.
No, that was a typo on my part. The username is asked for first.
> if tin is compiled with debug support you could use
> tin -D 1 [..your usual options..] and have a look at ${TMPDIR-"/tmp"}/NNTP
> afterwards. be aware that the file contains your plaintext password
> you you might want to set $TMPDIR to a secure place on multiusers
> systems.
Debut isn't compiled in. FYI, I installed it using the KUbuntu packages
system, so on a hunch, removed it, got the 1.8.3 tarball from tin.org and
tried to compile it manually. It stopped with an error 127 at the 'make
build' stage ..
make[1]: *** [parsdate.o] Erreur 127
ba...@googlemail.com
>> system, so on a hunch, removed it, got the 1.8.3 tarball from tin.org and
>> tried to compile it manually. It stopped with an error 127 at the 'make
>> build' stage ..
>>
>> make[1]: *** [parsdate.o] Erreur 127
>
> parser? you you have byacc or bison installed?
No idea. Here's the last screen before the compile failed..
mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (119) sudo make build
make[1]: entrant dans le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
expect 6 shift/reduce conflicts ...
./parsdate.y
make[1]: execvp: ./parsdate.y: Permission non accordée
make[1]: *** [parsdate.o] Erreur 127
make[1]: quittant le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
make: [build] Erreur 2 (ignorée)
mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (120) su
Mot de passe :
root@shirele:/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3# make build
make[1]: entrant dans le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
expect 6 shift/reduce conflicts ...
./parsdate.y
make[1]: execvp: ./parsdate.y: Permission non accordée
make[1]: *** [parsdate.o] Erreur 127
make[1]: quittant le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
make: [build] Erreur 2 (ignorée)
As you can see, I tried to run `make build` as root, to see if it was a
problem with permissions. No luck. :-(
I see your e-mail address is a tin.org one. If you tell me how to get the
full output of the compile into a text file (I can never remember the '>1
&>2' or whatever syntax...), I'll send you it. Or I can just file a bug
report concerning the other problem, i.e. the failure to authenticate..
ba...@googlemail.com
>>>> system, so on a hunch, removed it, got the 1.8.3 tarball from tin.org and
>>>> tried to compile it manually. It stopped with an error 127 at the 'make
>>>> build' stage ..
>>>>
>>>> make[1]: *** [parsdate.o] Erreur 127
>>>
>>> did configure complain about (one of the very last messages) a missing yacc
>>> parser? you you have byacc or bison installed?
>> No idea.
>
> running configure) - if configure doesn't detect any of those it does
> complain, if you ignore that you run into trouble later:
>
>> ./parsdate.y
>> make[1]: execvp: ./parsdate.y: Permission non accordée
>
> make-file line
>
> $(YACC) $(SRCDIR)/parsdate.y
>
> expands to
> ./parsdate.y
>
> and parsdate.c and later on parsdate.o are not created.
OK, I installed 'byacc-j' and 'bison' from the Kubuntu sources manager. I
then tried to build again (after having done './configure
--enable--pgp-gpg'. Result ..
curses.c:(.text+0x7e1): undefined reference to `tgoto'
curses.c:(.text+0x7f9): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o: In function `word_highlight_string':
curses.c:(.text+0xa5f): undefined reference to `tputs'
curses.c:(.text+0xaac): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o: In function `ScrollScreen':
curses.c:(.text+0xe3e): undefined reference to `tputs'
curses.c:(.text+0xe9e): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o:curses.c:(.text+0xed4): more undefined references to `tputs'
follow
./curses.o: In function `get_termcaps':
curses.c:(.text+0xfa2): undefined reference to `tgetent'
curses.c:(.text+0xfd1): undefined reference to `tgetstr'
curses.c:(.text+0xfec): undefined reference to `tgetnum'
curses.c:(.text+0xffd): undefined reference to `tgetnum'
curses.c:(.text+0x100e): undefined reference to `tgetflag'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [tin] Erreur 1
make[1]: quittant le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
make: [build] Erreur 2 (ignorée)
.. and it stops.
I really can't think of how the password error could be a usage thing.. but
I suppose that without debugging, I'll never know... :(
Frank Slootweg
> On 29-04-2010, Urs Jan�en <u...@buil.tin.org> wrote:
[...]
> > the first prompt should be for your username, not for your password,
> > if you see your password in the first prompt something is going
> > wrong.
>
> No, that was a typo on my part. The username is asked for first.
Do you see - *very shortly* - an error message *before* tin asks for
your username? Something about insecure permissions of your .newsauth
file?
I am using tin 'under' Cygwin on (MS-)Windows, and had that problem
when the permissions of my .newsauth were too 'open'/insecure.
[...]
ba...@googlemail.com
I did at first, but a quick `chmod 0600 .newsauth` soon fixed that...
ba...@googlemail.com
>>
>> OK, I installed 'byacc-j' and 'bison' from the Kubuntu sources manager. I
>> then tried to build again (after having done './configure
>> --enable--pgp-gpg'. Result ..
>>
>> curses.c:(.text+0x7e1): undefined reference to `tgoto'
>> curses.c:(.text+0x7f9): undefined reference to `tputs'
>> ./curses.o: In function `word_highlight_string':
>
> --with-screen=[n]curses[w] (see doc/INSTALL for details)
OK, this is starting to get confusing. What does..
--with-screen=[n]curses[w]
.. mean?
I looked in doc/INSTALL, and then tried ..
./configure --with-screen=/var/lib/dpkg/
.. and this happens..
curses.c:(.text+0x47f): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o:curses.c:(.text+0x4bf): more undefined references to `tputs'
follow
./curses.o: In function `SetScrollRegion':
curses.c:(.text+0x770): undefined reference to `tgoto'
curses.c:(.text+0x788): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o: In function `MoveCursor':
curses.c:(.text+0x7e1): undefined reference to `tgoto'
curses.c:(.text+0x7f9): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o: In function `word_highlight_string':
curses.c:(.text+0xa5f): undefined reference to `tputs'
curses.c:(.text+0xaac): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o: In function `ScrollScreen':
curses.c:(.text+0xe3e): undefined reference to `tputs'
curses.c:(.text+0xe9e): undefined reference to `tputs'
./curses.o:curses.c:(.text+0xed4): more undefined references to `tputs'
follow
./curses.o: In function `get_termcaps':
curses.c:(.text+0xfa2): undefined reference to `tgetent'
curses.c:(.text+0xfd1): undefined reference to `tgetstr'
curses.c:(.text+0xfec): undefined reference to `tgetnum'
curses.c:(.text+0xffd): undefined reference to `tgetnum'
curses.c:(.text+0x100e): undefined reference to `tgetflag'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [tin] Erreur 1
make[1]: quittant le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
make: [build] Erreur 2 (ignorée)
.. then I tried ..
./configure --with-ncurses=/var/lib/dpkg/
.. and more or less the same happens.
libncurses5-dev is definitely installed, as when I ran
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev
.. it told me it was already installed.
andrew
> OK, I installed 'byacc-j' and 'bison' from the Kubuntu sources manager. I
> then tried to build again
To get off to at least a start when building software under Ubuntu you
could try:
sudo apt-get build-dep tin
and this will download the dependencies used to create the Ubuntu
package, often this will be enough to build different versions as well
although sometimes you will need to scratch around for a few extras...
Andrew
--
Do you think that's air you're breathing?
ba...@googlemail.com
Duh... why didn't I think of that??? :-|
Anyway, success.. it compiles and runs. And then..
<http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1152/openv.png>
That just says, 'please enter your username'. The username is already
entered at this point, presumably by tin's reading of the .newsauth
Then ..
<http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2857/passz.png>
It's asking for my password. That field is empty, which I assume is to
avoid displaying the password. But whether I just hit ENTER, or whether I
type the password, or even whether I do a copy and paste directly from the
.newsauth, the result is the same..
<http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/479/noluck.png>
Error 502, failure to authenticate.
andrew
> Error 502, failure to authenticate.
Further up in the thread Urs suggested the debugging syntax?
ba...@googlemail.com
> On 2010-04-30, ba...@googlemail.com <ba...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Error 502, failure to authenticate.
>
> Further up in the thread Urs suggested the debugging syntax?
mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (126) tin -r -D 1
Lecture du fichier config...
Option non activée. Recompilez avec -DDEBUG.
mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (127)
I'm not having much luck, am I...? :-(
andrew
> Option non activée. Recompilez avec -DDEBUG.
> mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (127)
>
> I'm not having much luck, am I...? :-(
You are almost there :). Just recompile with:
./configure --enable-debug
after running 'make clean' of course.
ba...@googlemail.com
>
>> Option non activée. Recompilez avec -DDEBUG.
>> mike@shirele% /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3 (127)
>>
>> I'm not having much luck, am I...? :-(
>
> You are almost there :). Just recompile with:
>
> ./configure --enable-debug
>
> after running 'make clean' of course.
I can't. 'make build' fails when I try to compile manually, remember? The
only way I got it working was to do the install via 'sudo apt-get build-dep
tin'. Trying to compile it again, gives me ol' faithful...
./curses.o: In function `get_termcaps':
/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src/./curses.c:328: undefined reference to
`tgetent'
/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src/./curses.c:336: undefined reference to
`tgetstr'
/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src/./curses.c:338: undefined reference to
`tgetnum'
/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src/./curses.c:339: undefined reference to
`tgetnum'
/home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src/./curses.c:340: undefined reference to
`tgetflag'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [tin] Erreur 1
make[1]: quittant le répertoire « /home/mike/Bureau/tin-1.8.3/src »
make: [build] Erreur 2 (ignorée)
Oh, hang on.. you mean do the ./configure bit after 'make clean'? Lemme
try..
Nope. Same error.
All this is getting away from the main problem, i.e. why does tin refuse to
authenticate me on a server, when two other clients (slrn and pan) work
perfectly? Are we getting close to the moment when I have to file a bug
report, here..?
ba...@googlemail.com
I just tried moving the .newsauth file out of $HOME onto the Desktop, and
entered the auth. data manually. It still didn't work. These are the same
data that come from the working .slrnrc file.
ba...@googlemail.com
Interesting. I just installed tin on my Mac (with 'sudo port install
tin'), copied the .newsauth file over .. and it works perfectly.
Any ideas?
ba...@googlemail.com
> In <4bda403a$1...@news.x-privat.org>, ba...@googlemail.com wrote:
>>> ./configure --enable-debug
>>> after running 'make clean' of course.
>> I can't. 'make build' fails when I try to compile manually, remember? The
>> only way I got it working was to do the install via 'sudo apt-get build-dep
>> tin'. Trying to compile it again, gives me ol' faithful...
>
>
> make distclean
>
> configure --with-screen=ncursesw --enable-debug \
> --disable-echo --enable-cancel-locks --enable-ipv6 \
> --enable-nntp-only --enable-break-long-lines \
> --enable-mh-mail-handling --without-pgp --without-pgpk \
> --with-pcre=/usr
>
> make build
>
> most of the configure switches are not needed but with them the
> resulting binarie should be close to your distributions version.
OK, that confused me for a while, as I was still getting an error when I
didn't include the -r switch, despite the -nntp-only option to ./configure.
'turns out there are now two binaries called 'tin' on my system. :-|
>> All this is getting away from the main problem, i.e. why does tin refuse to
>> authenticate me on a server, when two other clients (slrn and pan) work
>> perfectly?
>
> we'll never know without debug data
OK, stupid question number 56, where are the debug data? I get it to run
with..
/usr/local/bin/tin -r -Q -D 1
.. and get the same error as before, namely that I can't authenticate. But
how do I provide you with these data?
>> Are we getting close to the moment when I have to file a bug
>> report, here..?
>
> feel free to do so, but as I'm currently the only one who responds to
> bug reports ...
Ah. Well, when you put it like that........... ;-)
I do appreciate the time you're putting into this, however.
ba...@googlemail.com
> if tin is compiled with debug support you could use
> tin -D 1 [..your usual options..] and have a look at ${TMPDIR-"/tmp"}/NNTP
> afterwards.
Oops, I just asked a question you'd already answered ..
Here is the stuff..
================
nntp_open: BEGIN
nntp_open: news.x-privat.org
<<<: 200 FreeNews NNRP Server - http://www.x-privat.org, 5.7e2,, S0
nntp_open: FreeNews NNRP Server - http://www.x-privat.org, 5.7e2,, S0
nntp command: LIST EXTENSIONS
>>>: LIST EXTENSIONS
<<<: 501 command syntax error (or un-implemented option)
LIST EXTENSIONS: NOT_OK - Expected: 202, got: 501
mode_reader: mode reader
>>>: MODE READER
<<<: 200 Extreme NTTP Server - http://www.x-privat.org
nntp command: XOVER
>>>: XOVER
<<<: 412 no newsgroup has been selected
XOVER: OK
nntp command: LIST overview.fmt
>>>: LIST overview.fmt
<<<: 215 information follows
LIST overview.fmt: OK
<<<: Subject:
<<<: From:
<<<: Date:
<<<: Message-ID:
<<<: References:
<<<: Bytes:
<<<: Lines:
<<<: Xref:full
read_newsrc_active_file: GROUP toto.toto.toto.etc
>>>: GROUP toto.toto.toto.etc
read_newsrc_active_file: GROUP another.group
>>>: GROUP another.group
read_newsrc_active_file: GROUP and.yet.another
>>>: GROUP and.yet.another
<<<: 480 Permission denied
get_respcode: authentication
authorization: authinfo generic
>>>: AUTHINFO GENERIC ANY mike
<<<: 211 42740 578994 636527 and.yet.another selected
authorization: original authinfo
authorization: AUTHINFO USER myemail...@gmail.com
>>>: AUTHINFO USER myemail...@gmail.com
<<<: 211 23240 502310 526247 and.yet.another selected
authorization: AUTHINFO USER myemail...@gmail.com
>>>: AUTHINFO USER myemail...@gmail.com
<<<: 481 bad authinfo param
authorization: failed
nntp_close: END
nntp command: QUIT
>>>: QUIT
<<<: 381 PASS required
QUIT: NOT_OK
ba...@googlemail.com
> but server still responds to the pipelined GROUP cmds.
>
> -> start tin with "-A" to do unrequested authentication right at the
> start.
And *bingo*
/usr/local/bin/tin -A -r -Q
Now works perfectly.
(I get the 'no FQDN' error, but I know how to fix that ( I think...))
Thank you kindly, Sir!