# Fssh_packet_write_wait: Connection to 77.183.250.3 port 22: Broken pipe

On recent 12-STABLE, 12.1-RELENG and 12.2-RELENG I face a very nasty problem which
occured a while ago after it seemed to have vanished for a while: running ssh in a xterm
on FreeBSD boxes as mentioned at the beginning ends up very rapidly in a lost connection
with

# Fssh_packet_write_wait: Connection to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX port 22: Broken pipe

The backend is in most cases a CURRENT, 12.1-RELENG or 12.2-RELENG or 12-STABLE server. A
couple of months ago we moved from 11.3-RELENG to 12.1-RELENG (server side, clients were
always 13-CURRENT or 12-STABLE). With FreeBSD 11 as the backend, those broken pipes
occured, but not that frequent and rapid as it is the fact now. 

The "problem" can be mitigated somehow: running top or using the console prevents the
broken pipe fault for a while, but it still occurs. Running "screen" (port
sysutils/screen) does extend the usability of the console for a significant timespan, but
the broken pipe also occurs randomly, but it takes a significant time to occur.

All systems mentioned above are highly customized, so I used the chance of another, more
"generic" scenario to test. The backend is a most recent Xigmanas machine (running
Hardened FreeBSD 12, latest official issue, its based on FBSD 12.1). Accessing clients
are recent GhostBSD or FreeBSD 12.2-RELENG, utilizing Remmina (port sysutils/remmina). It
doesn't matter whether I take the ports from our local poudriere driven repository or
from one of the official ones. SSH via Remmina dies the same death as it does on all
customized boxes. And those failing scenarios are occur in all kind of networks,
home-ISP-lab/work, lab's network, home's network with foreign, Linux based CPE or other
vendor's CPE.

My conclusion is: either there is a serious problem with FreeBSD since 12, or there is a
config issue I'm not aware of, even with "vanilla" installations from official repository
running unchanged.

Kind regards,

oh