ssh and vnc

[andrew heggie]

alan c wrote:

>> 
>> ssh -Y -l bill 192.168.xxx.ab and then his (fairly strong) user password.
>> 
>> For his convenience I have set the machine to autologin for his username.
> 
> btw - important: have you considered making his usual account into a
> non admin (non sudo) one?

No, I've never done this for Kubuntu as the need to use sudo and a password
seemed good enough. 

Using x11 I've tested it over vnc and I don't seem to be able to get root
functions.

> This is my usual approach with non computer literate people I help. I
> also edit his menus to reduce them and also lock the panels to stop
> the obvious 'lost my panel' problem.

Yes that's what I'll do next.

>> I'm not using keys yet, I hope that his account password is strong enough
>> but I will investigate keys.
> 
> ssh with password only is not recommended now I think. I see comments
> to disable the password use.

Surely you still need his login password even with keys?

>> 
>> Once this key has been successfully negotiated (it has in my case) can
>> the ssh be locked to this machine?
> 
> Yes as I understand it

OK this might be a bit like locking a wireless card's MAC address to the
wireless access point, I'll have to investigate.
> 

>> OK this is where mine fell over using krdc as the client on mine and Krfb
>> as the server on his. All seemed well,
>> I sent the invitation from bill's
> 
> I do not understand this. I would expect you to send an invitation
> from your machine (not bills) to bills server machine intending to
> connect to bills machine?

Not with the Krfb stuff bundled in 8.04.1. The sequence is:

server sends invitation and generates a password. 

client accepts invitation

server asks bill whether to allow connection

client requests me for login password

Then it conects

>> 
>> I've upgraded to krfb kde4 on bill's and get a connection with vncviewer
> 
> Great!
> 
>>but
>> the colours are all wrong.
> 
> The colours are very limited here too, probably only 24 colours,  but
> it is ok to use and I have it as a lower priority. they probably can
> be configured, but will take bandwidth.
> 
>>I need to find a remote desktop server that
>> works.
> 
> If you can see (limited) colours then I suggest it is probably working
> now.

Yes but it was generatining coloured blocks all over the screen, like one of
thos widowing tutorials in gwbasic on and old amstrad!

It's borked.

x11server works well but I need a terminal open in both computers and I
think bill's requires a reboot in order to allow another session.

I need a script which can be executed from his desktop.

NX is so slick, it installs from the debs and saves a connection icon on the
client's (my) desktop. I'm not sure how I got the NX server running (a bit
worrying, much like windows :-( ) it just did! However I cannot figure how
to get bill's current display. NX uses different ports and a number of
displays can be remotely connected but not the active desktop so far but it
looks like it would if I could force it to open port 1000.

Andrew Heggie
>