sshd service wont accept password

[Bernhard Ege <bernhard at ege dot cc>]

Well, I am at a loss. My sshd service will not accept my password. 
However, starting sshd like this:

/usr/sbin/sshd &

and then quitting the bash shell (optional) makes sshd work just fine, 
accepting my password as it should.

To fix the service I have tried uninstalling openssh and removing my ssh 
config files including the ssh key files (yes, I am desperate). Then I 
reinstalled openssh and ran ssh-host-config (said no to privilege 
separation as sshd user doesn't exist) and reinstalled (with 
ssh-host-config)/restarted my sshd service and again ssh'ed to my server 
only to have my password rejected again. Again, the above "fix" works 
which means something is working. I cannot easily debug the sshd service 
as it logs to the windows logger. However, here is what I have 
copy-pasted from the windows event logger when trying "ssh localhost" 
and give my password for each of the 3 password prompts:

Invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1.
input_userauth_request: invalid user bme.
Failed none for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Failed publickey for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Failed publickey for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Failed keyboard-interactive for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 
1237 ssh2.
Failed password for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Failed password for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Failed password for invalid user bme from 127.0.0.1 port 1237 ssh2.
Connection closed by 127.0.0.1.

My username is bme (according to Windows XP and cygwin's whoami command).

I have also tried regenerating /etc/passwd and /etc/group but that 
didn't have any effect. I tried erasing /var/log/sshd.log and /var/empty 
(which I also tried giving several different owners and access 
restrictions according to the documentation but nothing had any effect).

I am really at a loss here and need some help. I really hoped 
ssh-host-config would check everything preventing my from using numerous 
hours on this problem :-(

Bernhard

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