Can not access to SVN on a Linux server from Windows XP?

From: Tawfik, Sameh E <SamehTawfik_at_fairisaac.com>
Date: 2006-01-12 20:08:23 CET

Hi,

From Windows XP, I'm able to checkout and update all the files and
folders using SmartSVN with no problems.

But, when I try to run any svn command from a DOS box from the checked
out folders, I get the following error:

C:\SVN_DB \Text_documents>svn update Test_Machines.txt

svn: Can't create tunnel: The system cannot find the file
specified.

I went to http://subversion.tigris.org/ and checked both the FAQ and the
mailing lists, and I did find some references to this issue, but nothing
specific to resolve this issue!

On another web site, I found instructions about creating public and
private key files as follow:

- login to your server
- type: ssh-keygen -b 1024 -t dsa -N passphrase -f mykey
- change "passphrase" to a secret keyword only you know
- type: ls -l mykey*

We just created a SSH2 DSA key with 1024 bit keyphrase. You will see two
files. One named "mykey" and one named "mykey.pub". As you might guess,
the .pub file is the public key file, the other is the private one. Next
create a user on the server with a home directory:

- type: useradd -m myuser

You will have a directory under /home with the name "myuser", create a
new directory in "myuser" called ".ssh":

- type: cd /home/myuser
- type: mkdir .ssh

Then go to the directory where you created your keys and copy the public
key to the .ssh userfolder with the following command:

- type: cp mykey.pub /home/myuser/.ssh/authorized_keys

Please pay attention to the filename, it really must be
"authorized_keys". In some old OpenSSH implementations, it was
"authorized_keys2". Now download the private key file to your client
computer. Remeber, the file was "mykey"

------------------------------------------------------------
SSH key generation and connection check (client)
------------------------------------------------------------
Grab the tools we need for doing SSH on windows on this site:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Just go to the download section and get "Putty", "Plink", "Pageant" and
"Puttygen"

In order to use the private key we get from the server, we have to
convert it to a putty format. This is because the private key file
format is not specified by some standard body. To do this we simple open
"puttygen" and open the "conversions" menu and chose "Import Key". Then
browse to your file "mykey" which you got from the server enter your
provided passphrase upon creation of the key. Finally click "Save
private key" and save the file as "mykey.PPK" somewhere on disk.

Now we are ready to use this key for the first time to test the
connection. In order to do this, we open the program "putty" and create
a new session like this:

Session->HostName: Hostname or IP Adress of your server
Session->Protocol: SSH
Session->Saved Sessions: MyConnection
SSH->Prefered SSH Protocol version: 2
SSH->Auth->Private Key file for auth: $PATH$\mykey.PKK (replace $PATH$
with real path to the mykey.PKK file)

Then go back to Session tab and hit "save" button. You will see
"MyConnection" in the list of available connections.

Next click "open" and you should see a telnet login prompt. Use "myuser"
as username (without double quotes of course) and if everything is ok,
you dont have to provide a password to your system. If the system still
requires a password, something went wrong. See Debugging Section of this
HowTo.

I followed the above instructions, but when I click on the open, I get
an error message as follow:

Server refused our key

Note: I can use putty to login with no problems, by entering my user
name and password, without using the "MyConnection" session.

We've subversion version 1.2.1 installed on a Linux server, and I
installed svn 1.2.3 on Windows XP with service pack 2.

The repository is created on the Linux server, and we are using the
svnserve.

I installed SmartSVN version 1.1 on WindowsXP, and configured it as
follow:

SVN-Location: svn+ssh://server1/apps/svn1/testdb

Repository path:/apps/svn1/testdb

And specified my user name and password, and selected to store the
password on disk.

It's important for us to be able to run SVN commands from a DOS box,
because we need to run a nightly builds through Cruisecontrol which
requires svn commands to be successfully run from a DOS command box to
download the latest source code.

So, can anyone point me to the right direction here?

SVN repository:

- Is installed on a Linux serve.

svn --version

svn, version 1.2.1 (r15230)

compiled Jul 13 2005, 06:27:07

Subversion is open source software, see http://subversion.tigris.org/
This product includes software developed by CollabNet
(http://www.Collab.Net/).

The following repository access (RA) modules are available:

* ra_dav : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV (DeltaV)
protocol.

- handles 'http' scheme

- handles 'https' scheme

* ra_svn : Module for accessing a repository using the svn network
protocol.

- handles 'svn' scheme

* ra_local : Module for accessing a repository on local disk.

- handles 'file' scheme

SVN Client:

Windows XP - Service Pack 2

C:\svn --version

svn, version 1.2.3 (r15833)

compiled Aug 19 2005, 23:10:39