SFTP Failure in Dreamweaver 2004 MX under Wine (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS)

I have been using Dreamweaver 2004 MX since, well, it first came out. Windows NT was popular. I’d barely started web development having come over from the Visual Basic and C++ in Windows environment.

I like the IDE. It has the features I want, chiefly, the ability to work on a Remote site (or a Local site if you prefer).

When you open a file (on the Remote site) the following happens (essentially):

1) Open the file for edit
2) Dreamweaver GETS the file and saves it locally
3) You edit the file (the local copy)
4) You save the file (locally)
5) Dreamweaver PUTS the local version over to the remote site. (NOTE: There is an option when configuring a new site which asks to “put files on save”. If you neglect to tick this then Dreamweaver will not automatically PUT the file.)

What is sweet about this procedure is that when you open the remote file for editing, Dreamweaver will compare the remote file against the local file (if it already exists) and warn you if they are different. But the larger issue here is that it actually will GET the file!

I use both my desktop PC and my laptop (via wireless) to edit the same projects that are stored on my local development webserver. I don’t have to worry that the local versions on the desktop and laptop will almost always be out of snyc. Dreamweaver takes care of that headache for me.

I just GET the file (if I know it is out of date) or just open the file and let Dreamweaver GET the file.

Life is good. I once tried to switch to Netbeans since it handles remote projects, but alas it only does a PUT on Save (if so configured) and not a GET on edit. That is vital functionality for me. A showstopper without out.

I work on many remote servers maintaining websites and projects. With Dreamweaver I can be assured that I am editing the most up to date version of the remote file.

Ok, so what is the point of this post?

Recently I upgraded both my laptop and my desktop from Ubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 LTS. Overall the experience was painless. However, suddenly lost SFTP ability with Dreamweaver.

Oh nose!

This is a fairly common issue and typically has to do with cached ssh keys. Not in this case. This was a fresh install (and I mean… I reformatted and installed 12.04 new — then installed wine and everything else). There were no cached keys. No, this was worse.

I noticed that I could connect to a remote site via FTP, but not SFTP. Interesting. With Ubuntu 11.10 I didn’t have problems connecting to remote sites via SFTP, and I had recently gone from Ubuntu 11.10 to Mint 12 back to Ubuntu 11.10 then to Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop, each time reformatting. There were no cached keys, and with 11.10 and older connecting to remote sites via SFTP was ok.

I looked in my sysiog (/var/log/syslog) and found these entries whenever Dreamweaver started and then tried to connect remotely via SFTP):

May 8 09:09:56 coco kernel: [34928.411034] ptrace of non-child pid 12243 was attempted by: wineserver (pid 12215)

Well, I’ll cut to the chase and explain how to resolve the issue.

Edit your sysctl.conf file

$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf

at the end of the file add this line
kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0

Save, then restart your PC (log out may be sufficient, but I did a restart).

Now open Dreamweaver and connect to your remote site via SFTP!