sick of switching monitor cable!

[airedale]

I am sick of switching my monitor cable between my windows box and my linux router/server!

I am wondering if there is anyway for me to be able to either log in over the internet (when I am at home), or over the little lan I have created at school? It is just a windows box connecting to a linux server that is acting as a router...

[pbharris]

hello,
i just telnet (ssh) to my linux box and run everything from there.

[Tiger]

I think Belkin makes a monitor switch. You can switch one monitor between two puters.



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Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.

[Strike]

airedale, I have the same setup as you (though the Windows box is actually a Win98/Linux dual boot). I do what pbharris suggested. For example, my keyboard started acting up on my main machine, so I took the one off the firewall and put it on the main machine instead. Of course, I couldn't use the monitor I have hanging off the firewall now, so I use ssh (even on my own LAN - NO TELNET).

Of course, I just bought a new keyboard, so... nevermind http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[airedale]

How do I set up telnet ssh, and can it be run as a service? I want to have the ability to just restart the computer if (yes I know it is linux) it freezes up or something...

[Strike]

You can do that (reboot) over telnet/ssh

Search around on the 'net for ssh stuff, and on the networking forum. There's tons of info out there.

[Luthor]

Linux Magazine had a nice "get it up and running" article on ssh in Decembers issue if you can find a copy (friend or old issue still on shelves).

If not, like Strike said, there is a lot of info out there on this issue. I use it on the LAN at work and from home to access servers here (really nice to be able to forward X apps securely to remote computer). Even able to get in from Windows machines.

These steps must be done on both machines

Mains steps though:

1) Get the sources:
zlib, openssl, and openssh
(make sure the openssl acrchive has a "p" inb the filename - it is the portable version for linux not the OpenBSD release)

2) Untar them into their respective directories and run the following commands for each:

./configure
make
make install

(note: "make install" must be done as root so "su" first)
(note: they must be compiled in that order - zlib, openssl, openssh)

3) Check that it installed correctly

ssh -V

should display version notice

4) Generate your keys

ssh-keygen

5) Add the identity.pub file from workstation to the remote machine to be accessed into the file "authorized_keys". You can add the remote machines identity.pub the the workstation too if you expect to be accessing the workstation from the remote.

6) On the remote machine start up "sshd". You can add it to your startup once you have it all working.

7) Login "ssh -l <yourloginid> <remotehost>"

This is intended as a brief idea of how to get started and what to expect, not as a complete reference. Much of this came from a sidebar in the above mentioned article which goes into much greater depth (although this data is freely available in many other places). All credit goes to the author, Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier".

Hope this helps...



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Luthor St. James
(aka [AcK]BillTheCat)

[Anita]

In case you are interested in the Belkin switch:
I have the same setup: NT box and an old 95 box on which I am learning Linux.* Two cpus under the desk. One monitor, one keyboard, one mouse on the desk plus one Belkin OmniCube 2 port switchbox, Linksys DSL router and DSL modem on the desk. Cost for Belkin box and associated cables was in the $125? range at Fry's (don't remember exact cost as I also bought other items.)

This was helpful during the graphic card woes I had earlier -- I was able to rule out the monitor as the problem, and remain on-line with the NT (searching this site for answers which I did find. Thank you all very much). This may not be an economical solution, however the hassle factor was very low. I also labeled all the cables, which was helpful when I had to reinstall boards in the (now) Linux box.

[Counterstrike]

I have the same setup as Anita and it works well, a switch box, it connects one keyboard, one mouse (PS/2 or serial), and one monitor to 2 different computers. I use it to switch between my server/router (Win2K Advanced Server) and an old laptop my sister uses, since I never use my server unless I'm doing heavy admin work that I don't feel like doing remotely. It works great. I picked it up at CompUSA about a year ago now. They're fairly inexpensive too, and if you figure you'll never have to hassle with cables, or buy another monitor, it's well worth the price.

Here's a link (I have an older version, but it's the same product): http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=223016

Hope that helps.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I just bought a Belkin OmniCube KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) Do NOT use the mechanical switches, they're cheap (about $15) but you get what you pay for, they just don't work.

An active 4 port KVM switch will run you about $180 at Fry's but they are so worth it. I have a single Monitor, keyboard and mouse that I use to access 3 computers. It's way easier.

Of course, you can telnet, ftp, or rlogon between the boxes, but that's actually solveing a different, but similar, problem.

[compunuts]

Yeah.. KVM would be the easiest solution and it's machine independent. If one of your machine gone bad, you would have to set it up all over agian and it's really *****.

As two posts above suggested, don't use Mechnical ones. They are bad. I've thrown away two of them already.