svn: generic failure

hi there,

(i am not subscribed to the list, please cc: me with your answer)

the problem in a nutshell:

repository$ svn up
svn: generic failure

i am having a hard time tracking this down, so any pointers
are appreciated.

a bit more information:

the repo is on debian (svnserve in its simplest configuration):

----%<-------------------------------------------------------------------
$ svn --version
svn, version 1.6.12 (r955767)
   compiled May 31 2011, 16:12:12

Copyright (C) 2000-2009 CollabNet.
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_neon : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV protocol using Neon.
  - handles 'http' scheme
  - handles 'https' scheme
* ra_svn : Module for accessing a repository using the svn network protocol.
  - with Cyrus SASL authentication
  - handles 'svn' scheme
* ra_local : Module for accessing a repository on local disk.
  - handles 'file' scheme
* ra_serf : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV protocol using serf.
  - handles 'http' scheme
  - handles 'https' scheme
----%<-------------------------------------------------------------------

the client is on openbsd:

----%<-------------------------------------------------------------------
$ svn --version
svn, version 1.6.17 (r1128011)
   compiled Sep 24 2011, 02:22:43

Copyright (C) 2000-2009 CollabNet.
Subversion is open source software, see http://subversion.apache.org/
This product includes software developed by CollabNet (http://www.Collab.Net/).

The following repository access (RA) modules are available:

* ra_neon : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV protocol using Neon.
  - handles 'http' scheme
  - handles 'https' scheme
* ra_svn : Module for accessing a repository using the svn network protocol.
  - with Cyrus SASL authentication
  - handles 'svn' scheme
* ra_local : Module for accessing a repository on local disk.
  - handles 'file' scheme
----%<-------------------------------------------------------------------

the same version combination (server: 1.6.12, client: 1.6.17)
is confirmed to work with a client on fedora.

previous openbsd clients worked fine, and there was no change
in the configuration. i also tried removing $HOME/.subversion
and i was not asked for credentials, anything. the same
message all the time.

i am looking for a switch (or a way) that would make subversion
overly verbose so i could make a guess what is going wrong
and where.

-f

-- 
the borg assimilated my race & all i got was this t-shirt