Headless machine set up by brainless tech

February 4, 2010 10:34 PM

My Linux machine has no monitor, which is fine, except I forgot to install SSHD. Help!

Just did a fresh install of Debian stable, parked the server in the closet, and loaned my monitor to a friend (before you ask the obvious question, I'm posting this from a laptop.) Unfortunately I can't finish configuring the machine because I forgot to install SSHD (yes, I'm an idiot.)

Anyone out there with Debian stable, I would love to get the step-by-step keystrokes to get me through the configuration steps after doing this:

login: [user][enter]
password: [password][enter]
> sudo apt-get install ssh[enter]
[sudo password][enter]

I know at this point it'll ask me config questions, including the magic one ("do you want to run sshd?") but I don't know which questions, which order, or whether it defaults to yes or no on each. Bluh.

It's a hail mary, but here I am, asking anyway. Thanks if you're a Debian guy and patient enough to run the installer and document the steps.

posted by davejay to technology (11 answers total)

I'll run through it on a crunchbang box a post the steps, should be the same. Please stay tuned.
posted by jjb at 10:47 PM on February 4, 2010

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Worked for me on a Karmic box. There were no dependency questions. The service started automatically, too. I can't remember the last time I was prompted to start openssh-server upon install - it's been automatic for a while.
posted by cdmwebs at 10:48 PM on February 4, 2010

At least in ubuntu, the setup seems to require little, if any configuration: (see this image)

If I were you, I'd give it a shot with the default settings, which are generally sensible. After apt-get install ssh, wait a few seconds, give it a 'Y', and maybe an extra enter or two to be safe, then try sshing in from your laptop (assuming, of course that you know the IP - maybe from your router settings?)
posted by chrisamiller at 10:49 PM on February 4, 2010

Holy crap, I took a huge guess (as suggested by chrisamiller) and got it in one!

For the record, I logged in as root for convenience, then did:

apt-get install ssh
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)
y[enter]
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)
y[enter]
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)
y[enter]
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)
y[enter]
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)
y[enter]
(wait for disk to stop churning and network lights to stop)

Then I went and logged right in without issue. What are the odds?

Now off to run dpkg-configure ssh and fix any stupid 'y' configuration options. Thanks jjb for being wiling to run it, and chrisamiller for suggesting I just go for it.
posted by davejay at 10:51 PM on February 4, 2010

So, picking up where you left off:

...KB of additional diskspace used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

(wait FOREVER because I forgot to switch off of the Canadian mirror....)

And that seems to be it.
keys are generated and the daemon is running with no further input. I don't have a debian box at the moment to be 100% sure.

The box doesn't happen to have an out you could hook a tv up to?
posted by jjb at 10:53 PM on February 4, 2010

Hah, glad you got it going.
posted by jjb at 10:54 PM on February 4, 2010

For future reference, you can type

yes | sudo apt-get install openssh-server

The yes command repeatedly outputs the line 'y'. To test it type yes in the terminal.
posted by null terminated at 11:01 PM on February 4, 2010 [4 favorites]

You may also want to enable a boot serial console in case sshd dies or you need to run fsck in single user mode later.
posted by benzenedream at 1:51 AM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

instead of piping yes to apt-get, you can just pass the -y flag

apt-get -y install pacakgename
posted by namewithoutwords at 4:37 AM on February 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

namewithoutwords's solution will also avoid accidentally removing packages and suchlike - see the man page for apt-get.
posted by topynate at 5:53 AM on February 5, 2010

nt, nww, fantastic -- that'll be useful even when I can see what I'm doing. Thanks!
posted by davejay at 7:25 PM on February 5, 2010