LinkStation Pro Duo, enabling SSH
What I did to enable SSH on my LinkStation Pro Duo:
IMPORTANT NOTE: I made a few corrections to the below by adding item 3.6, and updating items 4.4, 5.11, and 5.12. Please read those items over again. If you needed to perform items 5.11 and 5.12 for two PCs, it is important that you use the updated commands.
-
Enable Telnet (temporarily)
- Download the acp-commander
- Run the .jar file by running
java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <IP ADDRESS> -o - Login to your LinkStation Pro Duo using (username and password are found on the above link)
telnet <IP ADDRESS>
-
Enable SSH at Startup
- Create an SSH Startup script by typing
vi /etc/init.d/sshd.sh - Type 'i' to enter Interactive Mode (this enables you to type), then proceed to type the following code:
#!/bin/sh
test -f /usr/local/sbin/sshd || exit 0ACTIVE_FILE=/var/run/active_sshdcase "$1" in
start) echo -n "Start services: sshd"
/usr/local/sbin/sshd -f /etc/sshd_config 2>/dev/null &
touch $ACTIVE_FILE
;;
stop) echo -n "Stop services: sshd"
killall sshd
rm -f $ACTIVE_FILE
;;
restart) $0 stop
$0 start
;;
*) echo "Usage: $0 start | stop | restart"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0 - Press the ESC key and type ":wq" to Save and Exit
- Make the file executable by running
chmod +x /etc/init.d/sshd.sh - Backup the original script startup file by running
cp /etc/init.d/rcS /etc/init.d/rcS.bak - Modify the rcS file to contain the SSH startup script by typing the following:
vi /etc/init.d/rcS - Press "i" to enter Interactive Mode
- Page Down till you see
echo "** step3 **" - At the end of the next line, add
sshd.sh - Your change should now look similar to the following:
for cmd in diskmon.sh drivecheck.sh ftpd.sh atalk.sh httpd.sh smb.sh clientUtil_servd.sh bonjour.sh lsprcvd.sh daemonwatch.sh logrotate_init.sh cron.sh checkconfig.sh ups.sh pwrmgr.sh sshd.sh - Save your changes and exit by pressing the ESC key and typing
:wq - Add your SSH script to the Daemon Watch, so if it crashes/closes, it will be started again automatically. Run the following code to edit the list
vi /etc/daemonwatch.list - Type "i" to enter Interactive Mode
- Add the following line to the file
/var/run/sshd.pid /var/run/active_sshd /etc/init.d/sshd.sh restart - Save your changes and exit bt pressing the ESC key and typing
:wq
- Create an SSH Startup script by typing
-
Configure SSH
- Backup your original sshd_config file by typing
cp /etc/sshd_config /etc/sshd_config.bak - Modify the sshd_config file by typing
vi /etc/sshd_config - Press "i" to enter Interactive Mode
- Remove the # in front of the following lines (you need to use the backspace key to do this; you may also need to change some of the 'no' values to 'yes')
Port 22
Protocol 2,1HostKey /etc/ssh_host_key
HostKey /etc/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh_host_dsa_keyPermitRootLogin yes
StrictModes yesRSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes - Save the file by pressing the ESC key then typing
:wq - Start the SSH Server by running
/etc/init.d/sshd.sh start
- Backup your original sshd_config file by typing
-
Create new Home folders for each user
You will need to do the following for every user you have created!- Create the users via the Web Interface first, once the users are created, start Step 2 for each user
- Create a directory for the user by typing (replace <username> with the actual username)
mkdir /home/<username> - Give the user permission to that folder by typing
chown <username>.<group> /home/<username>
Now this is a bit tricky, depending how you setup the groups. You want to give the permission to a valid user and a group the user is part of. For example, if you have a user named "matt" and a group named "contributor", then your command would be
chown matt.contributor /home/matt - Finally, make sure the directory has the correct permissions by running the following command
chmod 0755 /home/<username> - Set the user's home directory by running
usermod -d /home/<username> <username>
-
Create public/private key pairs for each user
You will need to do the following for every user you have created!
I am only going to go over the commands you would use in Linux as I haven't tried this with PuTTY yet. You will need to do these steps as "each user". In other words, you will have to logout on your PC, login as the next user and repeat the commands (advanced users can use su <username> to login as an additional user without logging out as their own).- Run the following command in Terminal or Konsole on YOUR PC
ssh-keygen - Leave the file name as "id_rsa"
- If you want a passphrase enter it here, otherwise, leave it blank (I left mine blank)
- Next run the following command to generate a SSH 2 key
ssh-keygen -t dsa - Leave the file name as "id_dsa"
- If you want a passphrase enter it here, otherwise, leave it blank (I left mine blank)
- Next copy the files to your LinkStation by running
scp .ssh/*.pub <username>@<IP ADDRESS>:/home/<username> - Next login to the LinkStation via SSH using
ssh <username>@<IP ADDRESS> - Once login run the following command to create your SSH key directory
mkdir .ssh - Make sure the permissions are set properly by running
chmod 0700 .ssh - Load the public key for SSH 1 by running
cat id_rsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys - Load the public key for SSH 2 by running
cat id_dsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys2 - Make sure the public key entries for SSH have the correct permissions by running
chmod 0600 .ssh/authorized_keys* - Exit out of the LinkStation by typing "exit"
- Try step 8 again and make sure it did not ask for your password this time (if you entered a passphrase, you will be prompted for your passphrase)
- Run the following command in Terminal or Konsole on YOUR PC
Download the sshd_config.zip
Flex and Flex Builder 3
I just have to tell everyone how cool Flex really is! When I did flash work several years ago it was a real pain developing an entire site in Flash especially if you wanted to incorporate any backend to it. This is definitely not the case with Flex and I have to give Adobe its' props on this.
However, let me state, that I do want to see Flex Builder 3 ported to Linux. I could then ditch my Windows Virtual Machine and run things natively, but that is my only complaint at this moment.
So why do I love Flex?
Flex is just easy to use, the components built it are amazing and you have the ability to build components on your own too! Much like Server Controls in .NET, .NET gives you a TON to begin with and you can create your own as well. However, this is for Flash! That is extremely important to acknowledge, as I do not have to have Macromedia Flash MX or whatever the latest version is on my PC to build a Flash application now.
Not only do I love being able to build a Flash application without Macromedia Flash, but I also love how it can work with an infinite number of backends without a lot of effort. Got a web service you want to plugin to? No problem, how about an RSS feed? Again, No problem. Well how about just a plain HTTP stream with a custom format? No Problem! I mean literally, you can plugin to any service that can send back a response. If it is a custom type of response, then you can write a routine to read your custom format. However, if you are using a Web Service, be in written in .NET and it returns an XML stream, then you literally have to do nothing! It will read it without any custom code from you, the developer. And that my friends is the "cream of the crop".
So where do we go from here?
I am going to be doing a lot of things with Flex fromt his point on. I was just totally amazed by the simplicity and yet the complexity you can have within it. I still have a lot to test. Updating the grid's data when it has changed, and similar events. But time will tell and so far Adobe has bought me back with this wonderful technology. Just bring it to Linux and I will move right next to your head-quarters Adobe!
Let the code work for you.
The past two/three days (work days), I have been plagued with the task of working on a complex portion of a project. The piece I am working on, I did not start, but I did write the foundation of it for 5 other projects and its' success and easy maintenance was largely due to how I designed it.
To keep a long story short, the architecture I used was not followed in this piece and now I am paying the price for something I didn't do. The original code was developed so the code would do 50-70% of the work for me dynamically. Yes, this has performance cost implications but they were minimal (1-2 seconds at best), but the time it saves is nearly 60-75% of development time.
Now the particular piece I am referring to does a lot of output work. It takes the data inputted by the user and develops a results page to the user describing the information the user typed. Now, to make my life easier, I build a hash table of the user's values and associate them with a code. The code is related to a table that defines the text to display regarding that entry.
By creating code to associate the hash table data with the database table, the results page can be generated dynamically saving me the countless time of programming each possibility the user can come up with.
Thus, sometimes it is smarter to go a dynamic route at the cost of performance, than it is to develop the most efficient masterpiece you can imagine.
That is my food for thought.