SOOLID blog

We’re trying Ubuntu, a Linux distribution that MrRoboto suggested to me. I’ve just finished a minimal installation to test it on a P3 old machine to work as a lan server so i can’t evauate correctly all pros and cons. of a tipical desktop installation.

These are few things i’ve noticed till now (keep in mind i’ve installed a minimal system usig the custom installation few hours ago):

PROS:

• Only one iso to download
• Fast at boot
• Fast but a little tricky installation
• Good package management via aptitude
• Their Manifesto

CONS

• Root Password is disabled by default (read the reasons here)
• The installer seemed to me not so easy as they say
• The partitioning tool isn’t so easy

This is a sort of a personal reminder. I can’t remember these simple step, so i decided to write them in this post. This simple tutorial show you how to login on a remote machine without password. (Usefull for my scheduled rsync over ssh backups)

1. Login on the local machine

2.Now generate public/private keys

[user@local]#ssh-keygen -t dsa -f .ssh/id_dsa

3. Now cd to .ssh dir and copy the public key on remote machine

[user@local]#cd .ssh
[user@local]#scp id_dsa.pub user@remote:~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

4. Now, login into the server machine and go to the .ssh directory on the server side

[user@local]# ssh user@remote
[user@remote]#cd .ssh

5. Finally add the client’s public key to the know public keys on the server

[user@remote]# cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys
[user@remote]#chmod 640 authorized_keys
[user@remote]#rm id_dsa.pub
[user@remote]#exit

Now you can login via ssh without password. If you wish to set up on multiple machines just start from p.3.

Check ssh manual for more infos.