Multi-login

[Daniel]

I thought I read that UNIX/Linux can be a multi-user system where multiple people can login from different places and do different things on the same computer. If that is correct, is there a way to set up a VL system so that multiple people on my home network could login to my VL computer and all perform different tasks at the same time?

[caitlyn]

If you've installed Vector Linux you already have a multi-user system.  If you want people to login remotely you have any of a number of ways to do this.  Are they going to be logging in from other Linux systems, from Windows, from Mac OS X, or   Do you prefer they use the command line or a GUI?  Is it OK to login at the command line and then start the GUI?

The answers will vary depending on the answers to the above questions.

My preference would be for you to use SSH and to permit X forwarding so that the remote users can have a GUI session.  This would entail nothing more than starting the sshd service for your chosen runlevel in vasm.  On the remote side a Linux/UNIX user has all they need if openssh is installed and it is by default on most systems.  A Windows user would need to install a GUI ssh client.  I like Putty, personally, because it is free and pretty easy to use. 

Most commercial clients I have use either ssh or XDCMP (logging directly into X) and use commerical (read: expensive) Windows clients like Hummingbird Exceed or Reflection X. 

[Daniel]

The remote users would be logging in from Windows machines. Command line login and then starting the GUI would be fine. Does this clarify or change anything?

[caitlyn]

Hi, Daniel,

Yes, it does.  I would just go into vasm or vasmCC, select Service, select the run level you use by default, and enable sshd.  You will then be ready to accept remote connections.   To enable X you need to do a little more work.  As root, with your favorite text editor, you will need to change /etc/ssh/sshd_config.  Look for a section that looks like this:

Code:

#AllowTcpForwarding yes
#GatewayPorts no
#X11Forwarding no
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes
#PrintMotd yes
#PrintLastLog yes
#TCPKeepAlive yes

Change #X11Forwarding no to #X11Forwarding yes to allow the remote users to have a GUI (X) session.

On the Windows side I would install putty.  See: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/  This program is very well documented both online and in the program itself.  Basically they will use putty to login to your system via ssh.

That's it in a nutshell.  I'm assuming you know how TCP/IP networking works and that the remote users will need your IP address to find your system unless you have it setup with a static IP and make entries in the hosts files on Windows systems to allow them to find it by name.

If you have any additional questions someone here will be happy to answer them.

HTH,
Cait


 

[wcs]

Change #X11Forwarding no to #X11Forwarding yes

Caitlyn means "X11Forwarding yes" (without the #).
Or else the line will be commented out, and the ssh server will assume the default (which is "no").

[Daniel]

Ok, I did all that. I started ssh and was able to connect. But... How do you start the GUI for the remote user? I typed startx and got an error msg: "Fatal Server Error: The server is already running for display 0"