git ls-remote returns 128 on any repo

Question

When using git, git ls-remote returns status code 128 while any other commands work flawlessly (push/pull/clone/etc). My repos are being managed with gitolite. I'm getting this error when trying to deploy rails app for the first time. When invoking said command by hand I get standard error like this:

fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

If this was permissions/public key issue, I wouldn't be able to push/pull to/from the repo. Why does single ls-remote command fail?

Solution

I figured it out. The problem was in repo's address. I have used git://host/repo address instead of git@host:repo. The latter fixed the issue.