SuSE 10.0 and openSuSE 10.2 (at least) has next sshd precompiled PATH assumption (reported usually in the beginning of /etc/ssh/sshd_config):
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
When running backupfs the first time in remote client-server mode that paths were searched for program execution, not /usr/local/bin, where all backupfs stuff resides. So, ssh backupfs@susehost backupfs-chksrc returns code 255.
My first proposition is to add remark about the problem to INSTALL file of the distribution or inform the user in some other way.
To reveal the problem I added "env" to the list of allowed commands in backupfs-shell. To my mind it's reasonable to debug potential problems and the security should not suffer greatly. So, it's my second proposition.
I can help with both things if you agree.