empty cron.log, user switching problem on Windows 10 with Microsoft id

empty cron.log, user switching problem on Windows 10 with Microsoft id

[Jason Crawford]

Hello everyone,
    Thanks for a great offering and all the help you provide.    I've 
used cygwin for a few years, but not deeply.  cron is one of the tools I 
find very handy.   Recently I upgraded to Windows 10 and ran in to 
problems on my Surface Pro 3.   I installed cygwin cron (latest cygwin 
32bit (2.873).  Cron is 4.1-63.) and it seemed to work but as soon as I 
switched my laptop to use the Microsoft ID cron as Microsoft suggest, 
cron stopped working, complaining that it can not switch id's.   If I do 
a fresh install of Win10, switch to the Microsoft ID, and install cygwin 
and cron, cron won't even work once.   And if I do a fresh install of 
Win10 and never switch to the Microsoft id, cygwin cron works fine.  
When it fails, the cronevents log file complains that it can't switch 
user id's.

I really don't do much.  I just install cygwin with cron, emacs, ssh, 
inetutils, unison, wget.  Then I start up a cygwin window as 
administrator.   Then cron-config, yes (service), [] (blank CYGWIN),  
yes (self), yes (start daemon).   Then I create a trivial cron file "*/1 
* * * *  date >~/cron_is_running.txt".   crontab mycron     ... and I 
wait a minute.  Then I invoke cronevents.

I want to try out all the features of that Microsoft touts as coming 
with use of the Microsoft ID, but I don't want to lose cron.

What do we all suggest that I do next?

J.


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RE: empty cron.log, user switching problem on Windows 10 with Microsoft id

[Pierre A Humblet]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jason Crawford
> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 2:17 AM
> 
> Hello everyone,
>     Thanks for a great offering and all the help you provide.    I've
> used cygwin for a few years, but not deeply.  cron is one of the tools I
> find very handy.   Recently I upgraded to Windows 10 and ran in to
> problems on my Surface Pro 3.   I installed cygwin cron (latest cygwin
> 32bit (2.873).  Cron is 4.1-63.) and it seemed to work but as soon as I switched
> my laptop to use the Microsoft ID cron as Microsoft suggest,
> cron stopped working, complaining that it can not switch id's.   If I do
> a fresh install of Win10, switch to the Microsoft ID, and install cygwin
> and cron, cron won't even work once.   And if I do a fresh install of
> Win10 and never switch to the Microsoft id, cygwin cron works fine.
> When it fails, the cronevents log file complains that it can't switch user id's.
> 
> I really don't do much.  I just install cygwin with cron, emacs, ssh, inetutils,
> unison, wget.  Then I start up a cygwin window as
> administrator.   Then cron-config, yes (service), [] (blank CYGWIN),
> yes (self), yes (start daemon).   Then I create a trivial cron file "*/1
> * * * *  date >~/cron_is_running.txt".   crontab mycron     ... and I
> wait a minute.  Then I invoke cronevents.
> 
> I want to try out all the features of that Microsoft touts as coming with use of
> the Microsoft ID, but I don't want to lose cron.
> 
> What do we all suggest that I do next?

Is that only with Cron or also with other services such as passwordless sshd?

Unfortunately I have no Windows 10 nor Microsoft ID to test. 

Pierre
cron maintainer


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Re: empty cron.log

[Jason Crawford]

On 12/18/2015 9:50 AM, Pierre A Humblet wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jason Crawford
>> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 2:17 AM
>>
>> Hello everyone,
>>      Thanks for a great offering and all the help you provide.    I've
>> used cygwin for a few years, but not deeply.  cron is one of the tools I
>> find very handy.   Recently I upgraded to Windows 10 and ran in to
>> problems on my Surface Pro 3.   I installed cygwin cron (latest cygwin
>> 32bit (2.873).  Cron is 4.1-63.) and it seemed to work but as soon as I switched
>> my laptop to use the Microsoft ID cron as Microsoft suggest,
>> cron stopped working, complaining that it can not switch id's.   If I do
>> a fresh install of Win10, switch to the Microsoft ID, and install cygwin
>> and cron, cron won't even work once.   And if I do a fresh install of
>> Win10 and never switch to the Microsoft id, cygwin cron works fine.
>> When it fails, the cronevents log file complains that it can't switch user id's.
>>
>> I really don't do much.  I just install cygwin with cron, emacs, ssh, inetutils,
>> unison, wget.  Then I start up a cygwin window as
>> administrator.   Then cron-config, yes (service), [] (blank CYGWIN),
>> yes (self), yes (start daemon).   Then I create a trivial cron file "*/1
>> * * * *  date >~/cron_is_running.txt".   crontab mycron     ... and I
>> wait a minute.  Then I invoke cronevents.
>>
>> I want to try out all the features of that Microsoft touts as coming with use of
>> the Microsoft ID, but I don't want to lose cron.
>>
>> What do we all suggest that I do next?
> Is that only with Cron or also with other services such as passwordless sshd?
I don't run sshd on the machine (as far as I know).  I only ssh out.   
That works fine without a password.   But...

But I've just tried setting up sshd on two Windows machines just now.   
I ran in to a few complications due to being a novice, but it eventually 
worked on Windows 7.    I've still not gotten sshd to work on Windows 10 
if my ssh client is on another machine.  That seems to be some sort of 
network connection or firewall problem.  I can ssh from the local Win10 
machine to the local Win10 machine though.   I have only one account and 
I can ssh in to that without a password using authorized_keys.

Does that answer your question?   Is there a simpler or more helpful way 
that I can gather data for you?   I don't mind reinstalling the 
operating system if that would help.


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RE: empty cron.log

[Pierre A Humblet]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:  Jason Crawford
> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 1:01 PM
> 
> On 12/18/2015 9:50 AM, Pierre A Humblet wrote:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Jason Crawford
> >> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 2:17 AM
> >>
> >> Hello everyone,
> >>      Thanks for a great offering and all the help you provide.    I've
> >> used cygwin for a few years, but not deeply.  cron is one of the tools I
> >> find very handy.   Recently I upgraded to Windows 10 and ran in to
> >> problems on my Surface Pro 3.   I installed cygwin cron (latest cygwin
> >> 32bit (2.873).  Cron is 4.1-63.) and it seemed to work but as soon as
> >> I switched my laptop to use the Microsoft ID cron as Microsoft suggest,
> >> cron stopped working, complaining that it can not switch id's.   If I do
> >> a fresh install of Win10, switch to the Microsoft ID, and install cygwin
> >> and cron, cron won't even work once.   And if I do a fresh install of
> >> Win10 and never switch to the Microsoft id, cygwin cron works fine.
> >> When it fails, the cronevents log file complains that it can't switch user
> id's.
> >>
> >> I really don't do much.  I just install cygwin with cron, emacs, ssh,
> >> inetutils, unison, wget.  Then I start up a cygwin window as
> >> administrator.   Then cron-config, yes (service), [] (blank CYGWIN),
> >> yes (self), yes (start daemon).   Then I create a trivial cron file "*/1
> >> * * * *  date >~/cron_is_running.txt".   crontab mycron     ... and I
> >> wait a minute.  Then I invoke cronevents.
> >>
> >> I want to try out all the features of that Microsoft touts as coming
> >> with use of the Microsoft ID, but I don't want to lose cron.
> >>
> >> What do we all suggest that I do next?
> > Is that only with Cron or also with other services such as passwordless
> sshd?
> I don't run sshd on the machine (as far as I know).  I only ssh out.
> That works fine without a password.   But...
> 
> But I've just tried setting up sshd on two Windows machines just now.
> I ran in to a few complications due to being a novice, but it eventually
> worked on Windows 7.    I've still not gotten sshd to work on Windows 10
> if my ssh client is on another machine.  That seems to be some sort of
> network connection or firewall problem.  I can ssh from the local Win10
> machine to the local Win10 machine though.   I have only one account and
> I can ssh in to that without a password using authorized_keys.
> 
> Does that answer your question?   Is there a simpler or more helpful way
> that I can gather data for you?   I don't mind reinstalling the
> operating system if that would help.

Thanks, Jason.

I assume both cron-config and ssh-host-config asked you for the name of a privileged user,
and you used the same name in both cases.

You may want to try what I suggested to someone else a while ago
http://cygwin.1069669.n5.nabble.com/cron-error-can-t-switch-user-context-td61919.html

The instructions were, as follows, except that now the service should run under the privileged account, 
(use -u), not under SYSTEM (the default)

> Stop the cron service. 
> Use a simple crontab that runs every minute, for only one user. 
> Using cygrunsrv, create a new service runing "strace" with argument "cron" under SYSTEM 
> 1)  cygrunsrv -I trace_cron -p /usr/bin/strace -a /usr/sbin/cron 
> 2)  cygrunsrv -S trace_cron 
> 3)  Let this run for no more than 2 minutes, output will be in /var/log/trace_cron.log 
>      You may have to use kill -9 to stop the service (kill the cron pid) 
> 4)  Send the trace_cron.log file as an attachment. 
> 5)  Remove the trace_cron service 


Pierre



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