Instructions for accessing my Ubuntu Karmic Koala boxes remotely using three tools

PuTTY, WinSCP and VNC

VNC

VNC support is installed natively, it just needs to be configured. VNC is like Remote Assistance from Microsoft; you are able to remotely view and control Gnome and all open windows interactively. Of course there are a few limitations (such as applications relying on OpenGL). XBMC for example cannot be controlled via VNC.

1. From the Gnome System menu select preferences and then Remote Desktop

2. Configure according to your own security requirements. I wasn’t worried about limiting my exposure except for a password for inbound connections. Plus, I have a permimeter firewall; these boxes are not in a DMZ.

3. Install VNC viewer on the machine that you would like to connect from

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=vnc+viewer+free+download

4. Open VNC viewer on the machine you would like to connect from, insert the IP address of the remote machine and connect.

Tip: If Gnome Menus do not load, disable system effects (System, Preferences, Appearance)

PuTTY

First you need to install OpenSSH server on the remote machine

Put simply, PuTTY is software that allows you to run terminal commands/applications from a remote system. In other words, anything that is not GUI you can do remotely without VNC’ing to the box or logging into the physical box.

From Windows

1. Grab a copy of PuTTY; I prefer PuTTY portable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Putty+Portable

2. Open PuTTY.exe (or PuTTYportable.exe)

IP Address (or host) of server

Port 22

Username/Password

WinSCP

First you need to install OpenSSH server on the remote machine

According to the WinSCP website

“WinSCP is an open source SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager functionality. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol.”

Put simply, WinSCP is software that allows you to upload files to and download files from your Linux server.

From Windows

1. Grab a copy of WinSCP; I prefer WinSCP portable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=WinSCP+Portable

2. Open WinSCP.exe (or WinSCPportable.exe)

IP Address (or host) of server

Port 22

Username/Password

Jeremy's Windows Desktop, Karmic Koala, Linux, OpenSSH, OpenSSH server, PuTTY, Remote Access, Ubuntu, WinSCP

Karmic Koala instructions for installing OpenSSH server to access Ubuntu remotely

1. I installed OpenSSH server

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

2. That’s it; because I only have two accounts with very secure passwords, I wasn’t worried about limiting my exposure in any way. Plus, I have a permimeter firewall; these boxes are not in a DMZ.

For details on accessing the boxes using WinSCP and PuTTY see here

Karmic Koala, Linux, OpenSSH, OpenSSH server, PuTTY, sudo apt-get install openssh-server, Ubuntu, WinSCP

Karmic Koala instructions for installing uTorrent in Wine.

First you need to install Wine

1. Download the utorrent 1.8.2 setup file; do not download the latest version directly from utorrent, unfortunately it fails to open and says that uTorrent is already running.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=utorrent+1.8.2+download

2. Right click on the setup file and select run with Wine.

3. Complete the uTorrent setup wizard.

Do not install any additional options

Do not create any desktop shortcuts

4. From the Ubuntu menu browse to the utorrent directory.

select Wine, Wine C:\ and browse to program files\utorrent

5. Copy the address from the address bar.

/home/jeremy/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/uTorrent/

6. Create a launcher on the desktop with the command.

wine “/home/jeremy/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/uTorrent/utorrent.exe”

7. Launch uTorrent and when it prompts you to upgrade, upgrade to the latest version.

Karmic Koala, Linux, torrent, uTorrent, uTorrent 1.8.2, uTorrent 1.8.5, Wine

Karmic Koala instructions for installing Wine

1. I installed Wine and Microsoft True Type Fonts

sudo apt-get install Wine msttcorefonts

2. I also added an extra drive in Wine which was mapped to my raid5 array /dev/md0

From Wine Utilities I seleted drive, added a new drive (e:), then mapped it to /dev/md0

Karmic Koala, Linux, Wine

Karmic Koala instructions for installing the 190 nvidia drivers and correcting the overscan issue when outputting to my High Def TV.

1. Add the nvidia repo

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa

2. Update to find the latest packages

sudo apt-get update

3. Install the new nvidia drivers

sudo apt-get install nvidia-190-modaliases nvidia-glx-190 nvidia-settings-190

4. Reboot

5. Reset the xconfig

sudo nvidia-xconfig

6. Reboot

7.Open Nvidia settings

sudo nvidia-settings

8. Find the TV under GPU0 and ajust overscan accordinly to make the image fit

HDTV, Karmic Koala, Linux, nvidia, nvidia-settings, overscan

Karmic Koala instructions for installing notepad++ in Wine.

First you need to install Wine

1. Download the latest windows setup file from the notepadd++ website

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=notepad%2B%2B

2. Right click on the setup file and select run with Wine.

3. Complete the notepad++ setup wizard.

Do not install any additional options

Do not create any desktop shortcuts

4. From the Ubuntu menu browse to the notepad++ directory.

select Wine, Wine C:\ and browse to program files\notepad++

5. Copy the address from the address bar.

/home/jeremy/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/Notepad++/

6. Create a launcher on the desktop with the command.

wine “/home/jeremy/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe”

Karmic Koala, Linux, notepad++, Ubuntu, Wine

Karmic Koala instructions for installing and configuring Samba on my Server

1. I installed Samba

sudo apt-get install samba samba-tools system-config-samba

2. I created a backup of the original Samba configuration

cd /etc

cd samba

sudo mv smb.conf  smb.conf.old

3. Create a new smb.conf

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

4. I typed the following config file thanks to help from http://samba.netfirms.com/index.htm

#Global parameters

workgroup = WORKGROUP
netbios name = server
encrypt passwords = yes

[homes]
read only = no
browseable = no

[backup]
path = /mnt/raid/backup
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy
invalid users = mediaservice

[downloaded]
path = /mnt/raid/downloaded
write list = jeremy
invalid users = mediaservice

[downloading]
path = /mnt/raid/downloading
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy
invalid users = mediaservice

[high def movies]
path = /mnt/raid/high def movies
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[movies]
path = /mnt/raid/movies
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[music]
path = /mnt/raid/music
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[music dvd]
path = /mnt/raid/music dvd
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[netsys]
path = /mnt/raid/netsys
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy
#invalid users = mediaservice

[scratch]
path = /mnt/raid/scratch
public = yes
browseable = yes

[software]
path = /mnt/raid/software
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[sysnet]
path = /mnt/raid/sysnet
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy
#invalid users = mediaservice

[tv]
path = /mnt/raid/tv
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

[watch]
path = /mnt/raid/watch
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy
invalid users = mediaservice

[wing chun]
path = /mnt/raid/wing chun
browseable = yes
write list = jeremy

5. I created a new user account called mediaservice (as mentioned above)

sudo useradd -d /home/mediaservice -s /bin/false -N mediaservice

sudo passwd mediaservice

*************

*************

sudo smbpasswd -a mediaservice

*************

*************

6. I set a samba password for my own account

sudo smbpasswd -a Jeremy

*************

*************

5. I restarted samba

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

5. I set permissions on the files

sudo nautilus

via nautilus I navigated to /mnt/raid and right clicked and selected permissions

Owner -> Root, Create and Delete Files

Group -> Users, Create and Delete Files

Others -> Create and Delete Files

5. I tested from a windows workstation

\\192.168.0.200

Karmic Koala, Linux, Samba, Ubuntu