[Techtalk] I just installed debian etch 4.0

[Wim De Smet]

Hi,

On Feb 1, 2008 12:32 PM, Sal Hardy <tech-talk at htpad.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> does this mean the newly installed debian Unix box is automatically
> configured to listen for clients connecting?
>
> I did not do anything in the way of configuration to the new Linux OS. also,
> it is using the default graphical interface.
>
> are you saying all I have to do is turn on the new Linux machine, figure out
> the IP address, go to the other computer, load the telnet.exe vista
> software, type in: open 192.168.1.45 and it should connect?
>

Most likely sshd is not automatically installed. I would recommend
using aptitude for installing software. The exact steps (i.e.
commands) to get everything installed. (assuming you have a working
network connection on the debian box to the internet or you can use
cd's if it's so configured) This list started at 1 but I added steps
to the front, sorry. :-)

-1. Most likely when debian has finished booting it will be displaying
the graphical interface. Switch to a terminal with ctrl-alt-f1. It
should be asking for a login, login as root. While typing the password
it does not display the password (or stars) to the screen. Just saying
this in case your sighted helper gets confused there.
0. apt-get update
(update the list of available packages from the internet)
1. apt-get install aptitude
(installs aptitude, which is useful in that it has better handling for
automatically installed libraries)
2. aptitude update
(update aptitude's package cache, probably not necessary but you never know)
3. aptitude install openssh-server
(press enter when it asks if it's okay to install this software)

On the last step a dialog might come up with some questions about how
to configure openssh-server, but I think it clearly states what the
"best" option is in each case. I do not have an etch install handy to
check. Normally the openssh-server will listen on its public ip
address by default, so no further configuration should be necessary.

Then after this, what you need is the ip address of the debian box so:
4. ifconfig
will show you a list of network interfaces. There is one called "lo",
and one or several called eth0, eth1, etc. Normally you only have
eth0, it is this address you need

5. Now on your other box you need to install putty, you can find it at:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
Basically you can just download the putty program to your desktop and
open it directly. You cannot use telnet because it does not understand
the encryption protocol ssh uses.

6. To configure putty you will need to enter an IP address. Use the IP
address from step 4, then press the button saying "Open".

7. a putty window will open, it should connect and prompt you for your
username, enter it and press enter. After that, a prompt comes up for
your password.Enter your password. When entering your password it
normally does not "echo" the characters, i.e. they are normally not
shown on the screen. So speech software would probably not see it
either.

I am not sure if the reader software will work with putty, that might
become an issue.

As for the stuff about hostnames, it could be that when the OS gets an
IP address, typically from a home router in your network running a
DHCP server, this hostname is communicated to the router and added to
its DNS. So it could be that you can always use this hostname to
connect instead of having to use the IP. It really is not all that
important if you know the IP address, which is mostly fixed since
hosts tend to be issued the same IP address every time. I'd recommend
leaving it as it is.

Hope this helps a bit,
Wim