Re: [vox-tech] Providing access to SSH on Kiosk?

[Ken Bloom <kabloom@ucdavis.eMAPSdu>]

On 2004.01.12 14:25, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> Okay, I had a feeling this would be asked, but I didn't realize it
> would
> only take a few DAYS for someone to ask it... :^)
>
> Is there an easy, safe way to let people SSH out of a kiosk (e.g.,  
> the
> one
> I set up in Chamonix over the weekend)?  e.g., for folks who prefer  
> to
> connect to their ISP (or UCD) server and run Mutt/Pine/etc. to check
> e-mail.
>
> I obviously don't want to just give away a bash prompt. :^)  I guess
> an "xterm -e ssh $user@$host" (with those being asked via a KDE
> kdialog or
> something) might do.
>
> Before I accidentally punch a gaping hole in the box, though, I
> thought I'd
> ask for suggestions here. ;^)
I assume this is a Debian box, other distributions should be no less  
flexible than what I'm about to explain though. In debian both ssh (the  
client) and sshd (the server) are in the same package (ssh).

*But* sshd doesn't need to be running to connect to a different  
computer by ssh, so you can modify the startup scripts to keep sshd  
from starting - hence the user can't log a local shell using by sshing  
to localhost. In distributions that separate ssh and sshd, you should  
install only the client package.

Now, you would like to make it easy to log in as any user. Instead of  
going ahead and creating your own script to take the user name, and  
host, I suggest you look at gnome-remote-shell in the gnome-networking  
package (sid) which does exactly as you describe wanting to do. Also  
look at kdessh (sid, woody, sarge). I recalling a gnome-based program  
for Gnome before Gnome2, but that's from my mandrake days and I can't  
find it in woody using packages.debian.org. There's also a gtk1.2 port  
of putty (sarge, sid).

Lots of choices. You shouldn't need to write your own version of  
anything.

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