Re: Granting access to OpenBSD

On 20.01.2026 07:47, Washington Odhiambo wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 7:42 PM Martin Schröder <martin@oneiros.de
> <mailto:martin@oneiros.de>> wrote:
>
> Am Mo., 19. Jan. 2026 um 17:08 Uhr schrieb Washington Odhiambo
> <odhiambo@gmail.com <mailto:odhiambo@gmail.com>>:
> > Thank you for the explanation. Very easy to understand.
> > I did exactly what you advised. It still did not allow me SSH access.
> > Now, I added pf=NO /etc/rc.conf.local and rebooted.
> > I believe this disabled PF completely.
> > This too did not solve the problem.
> > I remember running OpenBSD7.4 under VMWare Workstation and life
> wasn't this difficult.
> > See as I even have FreeBSD 15-RELEASE as a Proxmox VM and
> accessible, I am completely stumped with this issue around OpenBSD.
> >
> > TIt's affecting my sanity.
> >
> > Does anyone have any suggestions on how else I can resolve this?
>
> Start by reading the PF users guide.
> http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/index.html <http://www.openbsd.org/
> faq/pf/index.html>
>
> And trim down your pf.conf - start with a minimal config.
>
>
> The point is, I am not even interested in PF in the first place. I just
> need SSH access to work.
> The question is why it's not, even with PF disabled, yet sshd is running.
> See https://imgur.com/a/1OnKWNQ <https://imgur.com/a/1OnKWNQ>

With pf disabled: What user are you trying to connect and are you using
a ssh key or password? Have you created an additional user when you
installed OpenBSD?

When you installed OpenBSD, at one point the question is:

-> Allow root ssh logging (yes, no, prohibit-password) [no]

If you left it at 'no' you won't be able to login as root user. If you
selected 'prohibit-password', you won't be able to login with a
password, only with a key.

Check /etc/ssh/sshd_config for "PermitRootLogin", or use the additional
user you created.

>
> I am able to access all the VMs/LXCs via SSH. It's only OpenBSD that's
> inaccessible.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
> Nairobi,KE
> +254 7 3200 0004/+254 7 2274 3223
>  In an Internet failure case, the #1 suspect is a constant: DNS.
> "Oh, the cruft.", egrep -v '^$|^.*#' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :-)
> [How to ask smart questions: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-
> questions.html <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>]