How to get rid of QueryServiceStatus: Win32 error 1062 when you try to start sshd on Cygwin?

I installed Cygwin and sshd on Windows 7 but I'm not able to make it work.

I followed the guide from http://www.noah.org/ssh/cygwin-sshd.html but I still get:

$ cygrunsrv -S sshd
cygrunsrv: Error starting a service: QueryServiceStatus:  Win32 error 1062:
The service has not been started.

Configuration details:

• Windows 7 in a domain running with a domain user that has local administrative priviledges
• netstat -a -b reports nothing running on port 22
• C:\cygwin\var\log\sshd.log is empty
• After I installed cygwin and sshd, I run ssh-host-config -y
• Already tried to add SYSTEM account to the 3 directories, no change.
• Already tried a full system reboot, no change

Update: Windows logs complains about Possible duplicate cygwin1.dll

Solution 1:

Thanks, Your update was the resolution - for anyone else out there, there is a recipe #3 against Win32 error 1062 at Cygwin startup:

1) Check the Application Event log, see if there are "Information"-level events there with something like: "sshd: PID : Possible duplicate cygwin1.dll:"

Find that silly duplicate at the specified location and rename it or get rid of it from the path somehow. Mine was at "/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/socat-1.7.2.0/cygwin1.dll."

Boo, socat! Apparently they engage in 3PP. Didn't even know socat was on my system, apparently it came as a part of some other installation. I found 2 other people in the cygwin mailing lists having suffered from the duplicate-dll problem.

Solution 2:

Thank you @HopelessN00b, @user155148, @Algomorph a combination of your solutions got me going.

The Crux

I had two problems:

1. Duplicate cygwin1.dll files.
2. /var/log/sshd.log: "Privilege separation user sshd does not exist"

My Fix

1. Deal with the bloody duplicate pickle files:

   cd /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/cwRsync/bin
   mv cygwin1.dll cygwin1_.dll
   

2. Added a user by editing /etc/passwd and adding the following line:

   sshd:x:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin
   

Note that the username 'sshd' came from /var/log/sshd.log.

GAD what a pain in the arse this is!

I did find one other resource, this one a bit more verbose and from Oracle

In a nutshell, if you are having greif:

1. Run each of these steps ONE. AT. A. BLOODY. TIME.
   ...make the fix
   .....run cygrunsrv -S sshd
   .......curse profusely
2. Check the Windoze event logs.
   ...Do you have duplicate dll files??
3. Take a look at /var/log/sshd.log
   ...Do you have /etc/passwd probs?

Solution 3:

I had (almost) the same effect and an analogous solution: Application log showed a duplicate file

Possible duplicate cygwin1.dll: /cygdrive/c/dakota/bin/cygwin1.dll..

from my dakota installation. Renaming this dll did the trick. Thank you!

Solution 4:

I had some privilege separation problem. In this case adding a line to /etc/passwd file solved the problem.

sshd:x:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin