I tried Jean-Louis's suggestion:

"
fiume:~ # amrecover -oauth=bsdtcp
AMRECOVER Version 2.5.2p1. Contacting server on localhost ...
[request failed: recv error: Connection reset by peer]
"

the reply is different now and instantaneous.  So I checked a bit
further and my amanda-conf file did have the auth = "bsdtcp line
already in.  So after some more trials I did:

"
fiume:~ # amrecover daily
AMRECOVER Version 2.5.2p1. Contacting server on fiume.localnet ...
220 fiume AMANDA index server (2.5.2p1) ready.
Setting restore date to today (2007-11-27)
.....
"
and netstat -taunp | grep :1008 show the established connections.

So, it was the "daily" argument that was missing and did the trick.
My problem is solved, thanks.  I am still a bit puzzled what the line:
"
conf "daily"                            # your config name
"
means in my amanda-conf file.  Would that not set "daily" as the
default?

Again, thanks for the various replies.

Regards,

Charles



On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:13:33 -0500
Jean-Louis Martineau <martineau AT zmanda DOT com> wrote:

> your amanda service is configured for bsdtcp auth, which auth are you 
> using in amrecover, the default is 'bsd', you can set it in 
> amanda-client.conf or using '-oauth=bsdtcp' as argument to amrecover.
> 
> Jean-Louis
> 
> Charles Stroom wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > today I tried to restore a couple of files, but amrecover failed to
> > connect to the index server (I believe).  This is on my server PC
> > fiume: "
> > fiume:~ # amrecover -s fiume
> > AMRECOVER Version 2.5.2p1. Contacting server on fiume ...
> > [request failed: timeout waiting for ACK]
> > "
> > Backups work perfectly with user amandabackup (this is the
> > precompiled Opensuse 10.2 version).  Amrecover was done as root.
> >
> > Has this anything to do with the 3 files in the xinet.d directory
> > amanda, amandaidx, amidxtape?  Must a user root added somewhere?
> >
> > Their contents is:
> > -------------------------------
> > amanda
> > -------------------------------
> > # description: amanda backup services
> >
> > service amanda
> > {
> >     only_from       = fiume.localnet stremen.localnet
> >     socket_type     = stream
> >     protocol        = tcp
> >     wait            = no
> >     user            = amandabackup
> >     group           = disk
> >     groups          = yes
> >     server          = /usr/lib/amanda/amandad
> >     server_args     = -auth=bsdtcp amdump amindexd amidxtaped
> >     disable         = no
> > }                                                                           
> >     
> > --------------------------------
> > amandaidx
> > --------------------------------
> > service amandaidx
> > {
> >     socket_type     = stream
> >     protocol        = tcp
> >     wait            = no
> >     user            = amandabackup
> >     group           = disk
> >     groups          = yes
> >     server          = /usr/lib/amanda/amindexd
> > }                                                                           
> >     
> > --------------------------------
> > amidxtape
> > --------------------------------
> > # $Id: amidxtape,v 1.3 2006/08/04 19:45:50 root Exp $
> > #
> > service amidxtape
> > {
> >     socket_type     = stream
> >     protocol        = tcp
> >     wait            = no
> >     user            = amandabackup
> >     group           = disk
> >     groups          = yes
> >     server          = /usr/lib/amanda/amidxtaped
> > }                                                                           
> >     
> > ---------------------------------
> >
> > Any help is appreciated.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> >   
> 


-- 
Charles Stroom
email: charles at no-spam.stremen.xs4all.nl (remove the "no-spam.")