SSH

So, I am often SSH'd into a remote server from my Kubuntu desktop. I also rarely switch off my desktop and prefer to just hit sleep instead. One of the things that can be annoying when I resume the desktop is that the previous SSH session is now unresponsive/frozen as SSH believes that it is still connected to the remote server while the server has given up on the old session long ago. No amount of CTRL + C or CTRL + Z banging is going to terminate the session which can take an inordinately long wait to time out.

I ran into the following error while running a script that was performing backups of files via rsync over ssh.

I ran into the following spiel when I attempted to SSH to a host just now:

Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS: After installed SSHD, I found that logging in remotely was a time-consuming process as the password prompt took ages to pop up after the username prompt. Binging about, I found that this was due to SSHD performing a reverse DNS lookup of my IP to potentially check if all is kosher. Turning this check off fixes the issue:

All those who SSH into servers ought to use GNU Screen. The following is some additional configuration that can be added to a .screenrc file in your home directory. These lines do wonders to the usability of the system:

Instead of having to look up the exact syntax for pscp every time, here's a list of examples for future reference. In these examples, I'm transferring a file (bar.zip) from a Windows host to a Linux server (with the destination path of /home/druss/Desktop/).

In Linux, you can simplify some of your SSH commands using an SSH config file. For example, create a file named config in your ~/.ssh directory with something like the following:

When using Eclipse (Indigo) earlier today, I ran into the following error message while trying to push my commits upstream:
An internal Exception occurred during push: [URL] git-receive-pack not permitted

So, if you, like me, have to resort to PuTTY sometimes to SSH into a Linux box, I'm sure that you have also subjected yourself to much gnashing of teeth at the lack of a Windows solution to password-less logins into your server. For the uninitiated, password-less SSH allows you to log into a server without manually authenticating yourself.