Industry guru Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, Google AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP, Apple iPod, Mp3 players, management, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft Windows.

How do I get SSH & X Windows working?

A reader sent in an appeal for some Linux help this morning:
I have your book Teach Yourself Unix System Administration in 24 Hours, but still have some questions:
  • I have root access to a remote server which is limited to SSH. Can I make an X-server connection and how do I do that while I have an X-server already running?
  • From that remote server I need to take files located in a particular account and copy them to a new local server I've installed.
  • How do I set up an SSL enabled login account for someone accessing the new local server?

Dave's Answer: Great questions. Without knowing the exact flavor of Linux you're running, there's only so much help I can offer, but let's take a shot at this, shall we?

First off, you can definitely get X running via SSH. Have a look at the so-called tunnelling capabilities of the ssh command that you access by appending it to the usual ssh invocation. Here's what the man page says: "ssh (SSH client) is a program for logging into a remote machine and for executing commands on a remote machine... X11 connections and arbitrary TCP/IP ports can also be forwarded over the secure channel". You might also check out how the '-X' flag to ssh works too, if you're working with X Windows.

Copying files from one system to another via ssh is even easier: check out the sftp secure version of the FTP program. It is quite scriptable (as I explore in Wicked Cool Shell Scripts) if you don't want to use it manually too.

Finally, in terms of setting up a secure-only login account, you'll want to turn off telnet access (see "inetd" or "xinetd") and give those folk regular login accounts: the only way they'll be able to connect will be via ssh.

Hope this helps you out!



Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Simpy.

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments
Rather amazingly, there are no comments on this article yet.

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!









Remember personal info?


Please note that I will never send you any unsolicited commercial email. Ever.

While I'm at it, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site.









Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 1700+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.


Help!





Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!

Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online

RDF   XML

Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.


Recent Entries
Join the List!
Join my author info mailing list, where you'll learn about my upcoming books, speaking gigs, and more!


Book Links
© 2002 - 2008 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.

[whiteboard marker tray]