ssh-copy-id

I normally have my ~/.ssh/config so that it only uses my key or gssapi to login to other sites, however this poses a problem when reinstalling a server and don't yet have my key on it

ssh -F /dev/null root@hostname

works, but this wasn't working with ssh-copy-id.

Turns out that the ssh-copy-id script is braindead and only expects one or two (with the 1st beginning with -i) arguments.

lo and behold, some single quotes did the trick:

aelwell@pcitgtelwell:~$ ssh-copy-id '-F /dev/null root@concerto'
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
root@concerto's password:
Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh '-F /dev/null root@concerto'", and check in: ....

tada!

WebDAV

Here at CERN we use AFS for our home directories on Linux, but the windows stuff all uses DFS with https webdav voodoo.

Discovered on Ubuntu 10.04 that if I save a nautilus bookmark with:

davs://USERNAME@dfs.cern.ch/dfs/Users/U/USERNAME dfshome

it totally fails to connect. The correct syntax is simply:

davs://dfs.cern.ch/dfs/Users/U/USERNAME dfshome

and put in *both* your username and password when prompted.
Oh, and they're stored in ~/.gtk-bookmarks incase you need to edit them :-)

Kerberos & SSH at CERN

Quick blog posting to save me having to explain to people what's needed:

1) RTFM: http://linux.web.cern.ch/linux/docs/kerberos-access.shtml -- thats where most of the good debugging tips are

2) to get it working between say your ubuntu laptop and cern hosts you'll need to append

allow_weak_crypto = true

to /etc/krb5.conf [libdefaults] section. (see bug)

3) make life easy and put a few things in your ~/.ssh/config

host *
        Protocol 2
        VerifyHostKeyDNS yes
        VisualHostKey yes
        GSSAPIAuthentication yes
        PreferredAuthentications gssapi-with-mic,publickey

host lxplus
        hostname lxplus.cern.ch
        ForwardAgent yes
        GSSAPIDelegateCredentials yes
        GSSAPITrustDNS yes

(despite what the man page says there are NO SPACES between the options in PreferredAuthentications (see SSH bug 1702)

killed

I rarely have a need for bluetooth on my laptop, so mostly have it disabled. however when I was running Fedora 12. I had a nice option somewhere to leave bluetooth disabled and use the kill switch on my HP Compaq 8510p to purely turn off the wifi (advantage is that it also means the LED indicates wifi activity, not just always on)

However since migrating to Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 I can't reenable the bluetooth. All I have in the gnome widget is 'Your computer does not have any Bluetooth adaptors plugged in.' Grrr. Time to boot off a CD methinks and fix this.