Bug#458154: network-console: long time-out time during install

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 02:58:11PM +0100, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Monday 07 January 2008, Colin Watson wrote:
> > I agree that documenting this is the best approach.
> 
> Thanks for the info Colin.
> 
> Would the following text be OK for the installation guide (to be added as a 
> note in the network-console section)?
> 
> <snip>
> The <command>ssh</command> server in the installer uses a default
> configuration that does not have a timeout set. This means that in
> principle a connection to the system being installed should be kept
> open indefinitely. However, in some cases &mdash; depending on your
> local network setup &mdash; the connection may be lost after some
> period of inactivity.

I don't really like the first couple of sentences here. How about:

  The <command>ssh</command> server in the installer uses a default
  configuration that does not send keep-alive packets. In principle, a
  connection to the system being installed should be kept open
  indefinitely.

Keep-alive packets aren't really a timeout, so the previous version
jarred with me a bit.

> You may be able to avoid the connection being dropped by adding the option
> <userinput>-o 
> ServerAliveInterval=<replaceable>value</replaceable></userinput>
> when starting the <command>ssh</command> connection, or by adding that
> option in your <command>ssh</command> configuration. Note however that in
> some cases adding this option may also <emphasis>cause</emphasis> a
> connection to be dropped, so it should only be used when needed.

I'd add a bit in the last sentence:

  ... connection to be dropped (for example if keep-alive packets are
  sent during a brief network outage, from which <command>ssh</command>
  would otherwise have recovered), so ...

Otherwise sounds good to me.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@debian.org]