Ssh problem in Whonix 18

Support
1

Hello! I’m a long-time Whonix user and have just upgraded from Whonix 17 to 18 on VirtualBox. After running apt install ssh, System Check throws an error each time:

WARNING: System ready check (system) Result: Failed.

Debugging information:
Command:
leaprun system-ready-check (runs 'systemctl --wait is-system-running' as root via privleap)
result: 'degraded'
WARNING: systemd 'system' units check result: One or more units failed to load.

A possible system issue was detected. There is no need to panic. This is not a serious security problem. However, it may impact other system checks.

Some systemd 'system' units may be stuck in a failed, activating, or deactivating state.
Output of leaprun read-systemctl-logs-failed-units-pretty (runs 'systemctl --state=failed,activating,deactivating list-units' as root via privleap):

########################################
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION

ssh.service loaded failed failed OpenBSD Secure Shell server

Legend: LOAD -_ Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE -_ The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB -_ The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

1 loaded units listed.
########################################

I understand this error only prevents inbound connections, but I’d like to know: is this a new security feature in Whonix 18? I’ve searched the forum extensively but haven’t found anything related to this issue.

2

There isn’t any feature that intentionally prevents sshd from starting. Try running sudo journalctl -u ssh.service in sysmaint mode to see sshd’s logs. That should tell you what’s gone wrong. You can share the logs here (after removing any sensitive information).