To do this click System > Preferences > Remote Desktop. The first step is to allow connections to be made on the remote machine. Let’s first take a look at how this is set up. And fortunately the necessary tools are installed by default in the more recent GNOME desktops. For these types of connections to work the remote machine must have a server running allowing connections to be made. With this tool you are going to be administering using the remote machines complete desktop. Remote Desktop Viewer is a different beast.
If you have to make this change then restart the ssh daemon after you save the file. To make sure you do not allow SSH root connections look at the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and make sure the line PermitRootLogin yesis commented out (it is preceded by a # symbol), or simply change it to no instead. Allowing root connections via SSH is inviting trouble. Secure shell in as a normal user and then su to root if you need to work as root on a system remotely. It may be tempting to allow root user connections to the SSH daemon. This will, of course, require you to know the commands for the tools. You can start up the GUI tools you need by simply executing the commands to start them up. Just add the -X switch and SSH will now tunnel X Windows. Why would you want to do this over remotely connecting to the desktop via VNC or Team Viewer? By only using the GUI tools you need you are not slowing down the administrative process by having to process an entire desktop via the network. This means you can run the GUI tools on the remote machine on your local machine. SSH has the capability of tunneling X protocols built in. Start firing away commands.īut what if you want (or need) to use GUI tools this way? You can. Once you have successfully connected you will find yourself at the bash prompt of the remote machine. Where username is the username you want to connect with and remote-host is the IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the remote machine you want to access. Typically, the command to connect to a remote machine will look like this: You issue the ssh command from your local machine to connect to your remote machine and you can begin to run commands to remotely administer that machine.
Gaining remote access from one machine to another is simple and secure with SSH.
This is, by far, the fastest and easiest method of remotely administering your desktop. Once you’ve completed this article, it will be up to you to decide which method best suits your needs and when. I’m going to introduce you to three ways you can remotely administer your desktops and servers: Secure Shell (SSH), Remote Desktop Viewer, and TeamViewer. From the command line to GUI tools, you can take control of it all right from the comfort of your very own desktop anywhere you happen to be. One of the great things about Linux is the variety of tools you can use to remotely administer your Linux desktop and server systems. The next best thing to being there is being able to log into your systems remotely.