Thanks for the reply. The trick I missed is that this variable needs to be fixed in two places: tramp-sh.el AND tramp-loaddefs.el.  It now works for both Linux and Solaris.  Specifically, I had to set the value Old: ~/.tramp_historyNew: .tramp_history I had had some success in older versions of Emacs by changing the tramp-sh.el file only. Again, thanks for your help. Tom On Wednesday, May 24, 2017 10:58 AM, Michael Albinus wrote: Thomas Carroll writes: Hi Tom, > Very long time user of Tramp; depend on it heavily.  Thanks for > awesome software! > > Tramp is not working any longer with Solaris hosts it worked with > previously.  It seems to be fine with Linux hosts. > > Started with emacs -Q > > Recipe: > C-x C-f > /ssh:sybase@lee: > > At this point I enter my password; despite entering it correctly, it > prompts a second time for the password.  I provide it again, and then > the connection fails with the message you'll see below.  The > transcript from my messages buffer: > > Tramp: Opening connection for sybase@lee using ssh... > Tramp: Sending command ‘exec ssh -l sybase  -o ControlMaster=auto -o > ControlPath='tramp.%C' -o ControlPersist=no -e none lee’ > Tramp: Waiting for prompts from remote shell... > Tramp: Sending Password > Tramp: Waiting for prompts from remote shell...done > Tramp: Found remote shell prompt on ‘lee’ > Tramp: Opening connection for sybase@lee using ssh...failed > Tramp: Opening connection for sybase@lee using ssh... > Tramp: Sending command ‘exec ssh -l sybase  -o ControlMaster=auto -o > ControlPath='tramp.%C' -o ControlPersist=no -e none lee’ > Tramp: Waiting for prompts from remote shell... > Tramp: Sending Password > Tramp: Waiting for prompts from remote shell...done > Tramp: Found remote shell prompt on ‘lee’ > Tramp: Opening connection for sybase@lee using ssh...failed > tramp-file-name-handler: ‘tramp-histfile-override’ uses invalid file > ‘~/.tramp_history’ There have been many discussions which value to set for `tramp-histfile-override', see for example . Unfortunately, there is no proper default value satisfying everybody. The error message means, you shall change the default value of that variable. > Thanks for any help! Best regards, Michael.