[plug] [SOLVED] Problems with SSH delays on Kubuntu Feisty

[Lance Duivenbode]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share this as it frustrated the heck out of me until I 
dug deeper. With a fresh install of Kubuntu Feisty, I had the problem 
where every SSH connection sat waiting for around 12 - 20 seconds before 
asking me for the password. Using the -vvvvv option, it appeared that it 
was a DNS issue even though the address specified was an IP. Whilst this 
didn't make any sense, I thought I'd at least give it a try and so I 
modified the nsswitch settings in /etc/nsswitch.conf and changed the line:

    hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

to:

    hosts:          files dns

Alas, no dice. The real culprit was the /etc/ssh/ssh_config file (which 
specifies ssh client config for those not in the know) which contained 
the following lines:

    GSSAPIAuthentication yes
    GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no

Commenting these lines out made the problem disappear as it prevented an 
apparent attempted kerberos lookup, which was in turn requesting a 
reverse DNS lookup.

Hope this saves someone else a headache!