Troubleshooting

ssh-obi cannot find ssh

Install OpenSSH client tools and make sure ssh is on PATH. ssh-obi uses the system ssh binary and does not include its own SSH implementation.

Remote install reports unsupported target

The Unix bootstrap chooses a tarball from uname -s and uname -m. If it prints an unsupported target error, no release tarball is currently published for that OS/CPU pair.

Use Platform Support to check the published target list.

Windows install succeeds but ssh-obi.exe is not found

The Windows bootstrap updates the user’s PATH. Existing terminals may not see that change.

Open a new terminal and try:

ssh-obi.exe --help

Arrow keys do not work from Windows

Use Windows Terminal or another console with Windows virtual terminal input support. While attached, ssh-obi.exe enables that mode so special keys are sent to the remote PTY as escape sequences.

To check whether key bytes are reaching the remote shell, run:

cat -v

Then press Up. A working Windows client should print something like ^[[A. Press Ctrl-C to leave cat.

The picker shows (unknown) in WHAT

The WHAT column is best-effort. It depends on the remote OS and process table details. Failure to detect the foreground command does not affect session correctness.

ssh-obi deliberately avoids wrapping or instrumenting your shell to improve this field.

Output repeats after reconnect

This is expected. Reattach replays the session’s current bounded buffer before live forwarding resumes. ssh-obi does not maintain a per-client replay cursor.

Old output is missing after reconnect

The session replay buffer is bounded. Old output belongs in the local terminal scrollback.

A session is busy

A session can have only one attached client. If another client is already attached, a second attach attempt gets SessionBusy.

Use:

ssh-obi --list user@example.com

to inspect sessions, or:

ssh-obi --detach --session ID user@example.com

to ask the session to detach the attached client for a known session.

A deliberate detach reconnects unexpectedly

Use the in-session helper:

ssh-obi-server --detach

This asks the remote session to detach and causes the client to exit gracefully. Simply closing the terminal, killing SSH, or losing the network is ambiguous, so the client reconnects.

PowerShell bootstrap cannot run

Use a command that bypasses the current process policy:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://obi.menhera.org/bootstrap.ps1 | iex"

If that is blocked by local policy, download the script and inspect it before running it in an allowed shell.