Can't ssh to Mac mini?

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rogacasa@gmail.com - 21 Oct 2005 06:08 GMT

Hi. I have a Mac mini that I want to be able to ssh and rsync to.
Unfortunately I can't reach it, because from what I can tell, the mini
does not network itself until someone sits at it and logs in. (Good
thing it's in the same room...)

Did I miss something during setup? How do I configure the mini like a
regular UNIX box so that I can log into it remotely?

Did I lock it down too tight by putting it in Stealth Mode?

Thanks,
Roger Carlson

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rogacasa@gmail.com - 21 Oct 2005 06:12 GMT

I should mention that the mini is using wireless networking.

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Chris McDonald - 21 Oct 2005 06:18 GMT

>I should mention that the mini is using wireless networking.

Does your wireless disconnect when the Mac mini goes to sleep?

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Chris.

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Richard Maine - 21 Oct 2005 06:33 GMT

> Hi. I have a Mac mini that I want to be able to ssh and rsync to.
> Unfortunately I can't reach it, because from what I can tell, the mini
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Did I lock it down too tight by putting it in Stealth Mode?

Some basics. Maybe you are ok on them, but I wasn't sure.

You do have remote login activated, right? (under system prefs/sharing).

I assume it isn't going to sleep?

I'm not sure what stealth mode is... but it does sound suspicious.

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Richard Maine | Good judgement comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain

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Gnarlodious - 21 Oct 2005 06:46 GMT

Entity rogacasa@gmail.com spoke thus:

> Hi. I have a Mac mini that I want to be able to ssh and rsync to.
> Unfortunately I can't reach it, because from what I can tell, the mini
> does not network itself until someone sits at it and logs in. (Good
> thing it's in the same room...)

Never heard of it.

> Did I miss something during setup? How do I configure the mini like a
> regular UNIX box so that I can log into it remotely?

SSH is very finicky about permissions on the relevant filepaths. If ANY
permissions are wrong on any path component to the ssh file it will refuse
access:

sudo chown root:admin /Volumes
sudo chmod 777 /Volumes

sudo chown /Volumes/Rachel admin:Rachel
sudo chmod 751 /Volumes/Rachel

This I do because my userfolder is in Volumes NOT Users
Also, check the system.log file for any ssh failure reports.

> Did I lock it down too tight by putting it in Stealth Mode?

I don't know what that is.

-- Gnarlie's Applescript page:
http://Gnarlodious.com/Apple/AppleScript/

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Sander Tekelenburg - 21 Oct 2005 16:47 GMT

Provided you have sshd running (System Preferences->Sharingf: enable
"Remote Login") and the Mac is asleep, it should work out of the box. If
it doesn't, you may have changed something.

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Sander Tekelenburg, <http://www.euronet.nl/~tekelenb/>

Mac user: "Macs only have 40 viruses, tops!"
PC user: "SEE! Not even the virus writers support Macs!"

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Wayne C. Morris - 21 Oct 2005 18:08 GMT

> > Hi. I have a Mac mini that I want to be able to ssh and rsync to.
> > Unfortunately I can't reach it, because from what I can tell, the mini
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> "Remote Login") and the Mac is asleep, it should work out of the box. If
> it doesn't, you may have changed something.

Did you perhaps mean to say "...and the Mac is NOT asleep..."?

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Sander Tekelenburg - 22 Oct 2005 03:22 GMT

In article
<wayne.morris-962715.12081921102005@shawnews.wp.shawcable.net>,

[...]

> > Provided you have sshd running (System Preferences->Sharingf: enable
> > "Remote Login") and the Mac is asleep, it should work out of the box. If
> > it doesn't, you may have changed something.
>
> Did you perhaps mean to say "...and the Mac is NOT asleep..."?

Obviously, yes.

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Sander Tekelenburg, <http://www.euronet.nl/~tekelenb/>

Mac user: "Macs only have 40 viruses, tops!"
PC user: "SEE! Not even the virus writers support Macs!"

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rogacasa@gmail.com - 22 Oct 2005 02:28 GMT

I have 2 computers, a mini and a Powerbook. Here is what I do to test:

1. Reboot mini. mini is sitting there at the login screen.

2. From the Powerbook, I ssh to the mini. Nothing happens. Connection
times out. Looking at the mini next to me, I see it isn't asleep.

3. Sit at mini and log in.

4. Repeat step 2. This time I am able to ssh into the mini.

This probably works fine on a WIRED network, but here, the mini is
networked wirelessly. I have DSL with static IPs, An Airport Express is
distributing my 5 static IPs.

The mini has a static IP. It gets its IP from the base station via
"DHCP with manual address."

Is there something I can configure in Airport or in OS X to allow a
machine to start networking without someone having to log into the
console first?

Thanks.

Roger Carlson

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Barry Margolin - 22 Oct 2005 17:14 GMT

> I have 2 computers, a mini and a Powerbook. Here is what I do to test:
>
> 1. Reboot mini. mini is sitting there at the login screen.
>
> 2. From the Powerbook, I ssh to the mini. Nothing happens. Connection
> times out. Looking at the mini next to me, I see it isn't asleep.

It times out rather than reporting "Connection refused"? That suggests
that either the firewall is blocking the connection, or the Mini's
network isn't configured yet.

Can you ping the mini during this time?

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Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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Bob Harris - 23 Oct 2005 02:18 GMT

In article
<barmar-8D8D82.12142722102005@comcast.dca.giganews.com>,

> > I have 2 computers, a mini and a Powerbook. Here is what I do to test:
> >
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Can you ping the mini during this time?

I was in Borders bookstore this afternoon (wife was clothes
shopping and hanging out in the bookstore beat having to answer
questions like: "Does this make me look fat" :-))

Anyway, the "Mac OS X Tiger for UNIX Geeks" book seems to indicate
that you can enable ssh with no one logged in by enabling ssh in

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

And any default ssh configuration parameters would be set in
/etc/ssh_config.

After making changes to ssh_config, use "sudo kill -HUP xinitd" to
get the sys_config changes read.

They did not provide much information, so I don't have much to add
myself.

The only thing I could find about ssh.plist on MacOSXHints.com was:
<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050707140439980&que
ry=ssh.plist>

Bob Harris

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Barry Margolin - 23 Oct 2005 05:41 GMT

> In article
> <barmar-8D8D82.12142722102005@comcast.dca.giganews.com>,
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

Except that it doesn't sound like his problem is specific to SSH. Since
he's getting a timeout, not connection refused, it seems more like his
network isn't configured.

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Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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Mac Forum / General / Networking / October 2005

Can't ssh to Mac mini?