Ssh into the XO

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Sometimes you'll want to access your XO remotely from another computer. To do this, we can use ssh. Here's how.

On the XO

Enable remote login

On OLPC OS 10.1.3 and prior versions, remote login is enabled by default, though without a password defined.

On OLPC OS 11.2.0 and later versions, remote login is disabled by default. To enable it, start the Terminal activity and then cut and paste these two lines:

sudo chkconfig sshd on
sudo service sshd start

Set a password for root

By default, root does not have a password, and therefore cannot be used for for remote login. To set a password for root, start the Terminal activity and then copy and paste this line:

sudo passwd

Follow the prompts. This is what it might look like:

[olpc@xo-a7-4b-33 ~]$ sudo passwd
Changing password for user root.
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[olpc@xo-a7-4b-33 ~]$ 

Find the IP address

Remote login needs a host name or IP address. To find the IP address, right-click on the network device icon in the frame. The IP address will be shown.

If that doesn't work, we have an old method still available; use the Terminal activity copy and paste this line:

sudo ifconfig eth0

This will display a lot of text. Like this:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:C4:A7:4B:33  
          inet addr:10.0.0.172  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::217:c4ff:fea7:4b33/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:64 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:5537 (5.4 KiB)  TX bytes:17090 (16.6 KiB)

You can find the IP address in the second line, just after the words inet addr:. It should be four numbers separated by periods. In the example above, the IP address is 10.0.0.172.

On the other computer

Now open up a terminal on the other computer you want to ssh in from.

• Linux and Mac OS X users should already have a built-in terminal application: in that terminal, type

ssh root@<ip-address>

where <ip-address> is replaced by the IP address for your XO.

• Windows users will want to download puTTY, launch the .exe, and type root@<ip-address> in the ip address entry field, and hit "Open." (hit "Yes" for any pop-ups that come up.)

You'll be prompted for a password either way; use the one you just set for root.

You'll see a shell prompt if you are successful.