Revision [4809]
This is an old revision of SshWithPuppy made by PhilDaintree on 2009-12-26 20:48:31.
Using SSH with Puppy
What is SSH
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 that allows multiple files to be transferred over scp in secure and convenient way - similar to ftp - but securely.
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 from here
http://www.puppylinux.ca/tpp/big_bass/openssh-5.1.pet
this site requires to be authenticated - using the username: puppy and password: linux
Once downloaded to your puppy machine clicking on the file will bring up the puppy package manager and install the package for you.
This pre-configured open-ssh server only allows the user spot to login to the puppy machine running this server. During the installation you will be prompted to enter a new password for root and also for the user 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.
Once you have the above pet installed go to another 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.
