Using SSH with Puppy: PuppyLinux

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SSH - stands for secure shell and is a standard internet protocol that normally operates over port 22 for secure remote connection of computers. It can use a variety of encryption methods to ensure that data over ssh is private. Using ssh you can initiate terminal sessions on remote computers to do system administration - this would be its primary function. However, it is even possible to run the graphical X interface over ssh or forward printer traffic through an ssh connection - this use is beyond the scope of this document. SSH can do all sorts of cool things like passsword-less login by exchanging the public key of the user logging in with the server in its know_hosts file - ok let's walk first.

The ssh suite of programs also comes with scp - secure copy program that allows files to be transferred over an ssh connection - there are also windows and graphical scp programs such as the open source winscp, this is a windows program that allows multiple files to be transferred over scp in secure and convenient way - similar to ftp - but securely.

Client

There are two parts to an ssh connection - the client ssh program - there are any number of these but the putty ssh client is a commonly used windows based one and is freely downloadable. Most linux/unix distributions come with the command line ssh client program that can be run from the command line e.g. from puppy's rxvt terminal screen:

#ssh somehost

where somehost is either an ip address or a ip resolvable name that is running an ssh server. This command establishes a connection to somehost and prompts for a username. If you know the remote username that you wish to login as you can enter:

#ssh -lsomeuser somehost

where someuser is the name of the user you wish to login as on the remote machine.

Getting an SSH Server for Puppy

Puppy doesn't come with an ssh server by default you can get one, for example OpenSSH.

Once downloaded an appropriate package to your Puppy server machine clicking on the file will bring up the puppy package manager and install the package for you.

Typically the OpenSSH package will be a per-configured server that only allows one user to login. For example, the user spot. The installation may ask for a new password for the users root and also spot.

You need to determine the ip address of your puppy machine - from rxvt terminal use :

#ifconfig

this will display the network interfaces configured on the puppy machine and show the ip address of each - if configured. If no interfaces configured go to Setup->network wizard and configure them.

Login to Server via Client

Once you have installed the SSH server go to the client machine on the same network - assuming you can "ping" the puppy machine you will then be able to enter

#ssh -lspot WW.XX.YY.ZZ

where WW.XX.YY.ZZ is the ip address of your puppy machine. You will need to enter the password for spot created at the time of the installation.

Once you have established the connection as spot, to be able to do anything you will also need to switch user - su to the root administrator - you will then be prompted to enter the root password.

Here's how to connect to the Pi2/3 running Dropbear (an ssh replacement) from a Linux PC (I'm using Linux Mint here, but works the same way in most distros):

- Open a terminal window on the Pi and run 'ifconfig' to get the IP address

- Open a terminal window on the Linux PC and run

# ssh -X 192.168.0.108 -l root

(change the IP address to the one you got from your Pi; and that's a lowercase 'L' not a 'one' after the minus sign)

- When it asks if you want to continue connecting, write 'yes'. It then asks for the password. It's 'woofwoof'.

You get a '#' prompt and you're in Cool

Now you can start the file manager like this

# rox &

Rox will open in a window on your PC.

(The '&' will start rox in the background and let you have control of the terminal back. That way you can start more programs from the same terminal)

For Seamonkey, just run

# seamonkey &

and the browser will open in another window on your PC.

As to my quest to run the whole Quirky desktop on my Linux PC, at least I can work on it from my PC now, using ssh Razz

Source: Extra details
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Also on the Wiki

OpenSSH - SSH server package

PuppyLinux : SshWithPuppy