cannot establish the connection with the remote machine

[hachi-27]

Hi,

I'm using nvim 0.8.0 and installed distant.nvim via Packer on MacOS. I have a remote machine that is running on Contabo OS. I've installed distant binary via cargo install distant and Path is also added tot he .bashrc file. I've also already defined bin path in the distant.nvim setup like this:

      require('distant').setup {
        ["Remote_IP"] = {
          distant = "/root/.cargo/bin/distant",
      },
      ['*'] = require('distant.settings').chip_default(), {
        ssh = {
          idendity_files = { '~/.ssh/id_ed25519_39k' },
          user = { 'root' },
        }
      }
    }

However, when I run :DistantLaunch <IP> then for some reason it tries to log in to a username that is defined in my local system For ex: my laptop's username is hachi then it tries to login to [email protected] and hachi user does not exist on my remote machine.
So I run the command as :DistantLaunch root@<IP> because I've to access the root user. but it is not working either as I'm getting the following error:

Failed (1): Failed to connect to server
Caused by:
    deadline has elapsed

Here I'm also attaching my a screenshot

Also I don't understand why is it using my ssh keys when it is making the connection using tcp rather than ssh. Any comments on that?

Please help me resolving the issue. It'd be a huge help.
Thanks

[chipsenkbeil]

If you do DistantLaunch ssh://[email protected], this will ssh into the remote machine using the username you provide to execute distant server listen --daemon ... to spawn a server that is detached from ssh. This prints out the port and key that need to be used to connect over TCP. From there, the ssh connection will close and distant.nvim will attempt to connect over TCP to the server.

If you are getting a timeout or connection refused, this is most likely because the distant server has bound to a port that is not exposed to the Internet. You would need to specify the port that you want the server to listen on via :DistantLaunch ssh://[email protected] distant.args="--port 8080".

Alternatively, you can run distant server listen --daemon --host any --port 8080 on your remote machine directly, which will print out the key and port being used:

distant server listen --daemon --host any --port 8080
[distant server detached, pid = 50656]

distant://:59ffb73c29a06c2875ee67cb9af2dda0e07486861a7261a5bbc0da32eb8f6317@0.0.0.0:8080

From there, just replace the 0.0.0.0 with your IP address when you use DistantConnect:

:DistantConnect distant://:59ffb73c29a06c2875ee67cb9af2dda0e07486861a7261a5bbc0da32eb8f6317@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080

[hachi-27]

Thanks chip for your detailed response.
However, I just tried your alternative solution and I'm still facing the exact same error that I was getting before.
Can you tell me how do I confirm if 8080 port is open to the internet?
I'm not the admin of the server though.
Thanks

[chipsenkbeil]

That was just an arbitrary port, not something guaranteed to be open on your server. You could use something like https://canyouseeme.org/ to see if a port is open on a machine with an IP.

[hachi-27]

Hi chip,
Just checked my IP with nmap from my laptop and I can see the port is open.
Discovered open port 8080/tcp on <my remote IP>.
Which means problem is something else.
Can you suggest anything please?

[chipsenkbeil]

Have you started the server manually on that machine and then tried using DistantConnect? If so, add logging to the server via --log-level trace --log-file /path/to/file.log to see if a connections happens with the server.

[hachi-27]

yes I did create the server on the remote machine.
however, if I'm trying to add a log file then I'm getting the following:

root@vmi575659:~# distant server listen --daemon --host any --port 5777 --log-level trace --log-file ~/work_himanshu/


thread 'main' panicked at 'Failed to create log file spec: OutputBadFile', /root/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-0.19.0/src/cli.rs:134:18
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

what can I do?

[chipsenkbeil]

You need to specify the file, not the directory. So work_himanshu/distant.log

[chipsenkbeil]

Also, I'd recommend using distant 0.20.0-alpha.4

[chipsenkbeil]

If you are using the v2 branch, that's the version suppoted right now

[hachi-27]

I'm unable to use the pre-built binary v0.20.0 on CentOS7 because I'm getting the following errors:
which I searched online and it appears the binary was made with more recent version of linux than what I'm using rn.

./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.25' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.18' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.32' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.33' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)
./distant-linux64-gnu-x86: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by ./distant-linux64-gnu-x86)

while using crate it is giving me v0.19.0

[hachi-27]

And after starting the server with the logs and tried to connect with my client. I'm getting the following logs:

[2023-04-28 14:35:35.444076 +02:00] DEBUG [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-0.19.0/src/cli/commands/server.rs:106] Forking process
[2023-04-28 14:35:35.446546 +02:00] TRACE [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-0.19.0/src/cli/commands/server.rs:144] Starting server using unresolved host 'Any'
[2023-04-28 14:35:35.446614 +02:00] DEBUG [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-0.19.0/src/cli/commands/server.rs:168] Starting local API server, binding to 0.0.0.0 with port in range 5777
[2023-04-28 14:35:35.446842 +02:00] DEBUG [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-core-0.19.0/src/api/local/state/watcher.rs:94] Watcher not configured for precise events
[2023-04-28 14:35:35.446863 +02:00] DEBUG [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-core-0.19.0/src/api/local/state/watcher.rs:94] Watcher not configured for notice events
[2023-04-28 14:35:35.446911 +02:00] INFO [/home/work/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/distant-0.19.0/src/cli/commands/server.rs:198] Server listening at 0.0.0.0:5777

I don't think client's request is being received by the server.

[hachi-27]

Hi @chipsenkbeil ,
Can you please suggest anything else?
Thanks

[chipsenkbeil]

Hey there! Apologies, I'm on vacation out of the country, so I am not regularly checking issues right now.

The v2 branch of the plugin currently requires v0.20.0-alpha.4 for compatibility. Have you tried compiling from source? Or using the musl version on linux? The issue where no message is received may be related to chipsenkbeil/distant#167, where a version incompatibility can appear like the issue you've reported. It's going to be fixed to report an error before the final v0.20.0 is released.

I've had situations where the version of Linux is so old that the GLIBC version isn't compatible, and I switched to the pre-compiled musl version such as https://github.com/chipsenkbeil/distant/releases/download/v0.20.0-alpha.4/distant-linux64-musl-x86

[sangtq13]

Hi @chipsenkbeil, I am installing distant from source on ubuntu 1804. After finishing download distant with packer. I try to connect to remote server using following command "DistantLaunch my_server ssh.user=root" but terminal show the error "Failed (1): error: unrecognized subcommand 'client'
Usage: distant [OPTIONS]
For more information, try '--help'.". I try to find the solution for this problem but anything can help so I have to change to VS code to connect to remote host. Please help me the way to setup distant correctly. Thank you so much.

[chipsenkbeil]

@sangtq13 what version of distant and distant.nvim do you have? This sounds like you are using a version of distant that is too high for what the v0.2 branch supports.

You can either switch to v0.3 and use DistantLaunch root@my_server or installer the appropriate version for v0.2 as highlighted in the Readme.

[sangtq13]

@chipsenkbeil, I am using v0.2 in my current nvim. I install in packer with the following command:
use {
'chipsenkbeil/distant.nvim',
branch = 'v0.2',
config = function()
require('distant').setup {
-- Applies Chip's personal settings to every machine you connect to
--
-- 1. Ensures that distant servers terminate with no connections
-- 2. Provides navigation bindings for remote directories
-- 3. Provides keybinding to jump into a remote file's parent directory
['*'] = require('distant.settings').chip_default()
}
end
}

[chipsenkbeil]

@sangtq13 yes, you have the same issue as #104. The version of distant installed (not the plugin) is too new, I believe.

[sangtq13]

@chipsenkbeil, I switch distant to version 0.20.0-alpha.4 and this error will appear:
Failed (1): Failed to launch server
Caused by:
Fatal: ssh handshake with 192.168.30.180:22: [Session(-43)] Failed getting banner

Any idea for this problem bro. Thank you so much.

[chipsenkbeil]

@sangtq13 can you try running DistantLaunch my_server ssh.user=root options="ssh.backend=libssh"? Or, actually, I believe the v0.2 branch now would be in the format DistantLaunch ssh://root@my_server options="ssh.backend=libssh". But the main thing to try is options="ssh.backend=libssh".

[sangtq13]

@chipsenkbeil, I use your command and this error appears:
Failed (1): Failed to launch server
Caused by:
Invalid backend
In my case, I am trying to connect to a remote host my_server via proxy in ssh config file. Is it the case that distant support?

[chipsenkbeil]

Ah, proxy isn't supported (yet)., so I don't believe this would work. Your intention is that you have to go through one machine running ssh to connect to a second machine that is only accessible from the first?

What you can do is start distant manually on that second machine, and then create an ssh tunnel that you connect through. When I write up documentation for v0.3, I'll try to cover how to do that.

[sangtq13]

@chipsenkbeil, yes bro. This is the case that I want to connect to remote. I am expecting it will be supported in v0.3 because I really want to use Vim in stead of VS code and I don't want to come back using vim script. Thank you for your detailed respose. I really appreciate that.

[sangtq13]

@chipsenkbeil, How can I install v0.3 of distant?. In current, I am using following command with packer:
use {
'chipsenkbeil/distant.nvim',
branch = 'v0.3',
config = function()
require('distant').setup {
-- Applies Chip's personal settings to every machine you connect to
--
-- 1. Ensures that distant servers terminate with no connections
-- 2. Provides navigation bindings for remote directories
-- 3. Provides keybinding to jump into a remote file's parent directory
['*'] = require('distant.settings').chip_default()
}
end
}
I already checked distant installing in ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/start/distant.nvim. However in nvim, I can not type DistantInstall. It works with v2.0. I am trying to switch to v3.0 to see it can support remote to host via proxy command. Thank you very much.