Headless machine?

Hi Folks,

I have a machine set up on my home network running Mandrake 10.0. I have
been using this machine to download large music videos etc from the likes of
bittorrent. I used a KVM switch with the linux box and my main machine in
order to control the linux box but it was a v.cheap switch (£5.00 on ebay)
and hence the picture quality is extremely poor (plus it locks out my
keyboard and mouse intermittently).

I have removed the switch and now want to access the linux box from my other
PC. I can SSH in and start downlaods etc but with the bittorrent stuff I
would like to see how much I have downloaded/uploaded to make sure i dont
become a file leach.

The problem i have is that when i switch the machine off that i ssh'ed in
from i then lose the screen that had all the details (i.e. if i ssh in again
i dont have the original screen up again). I have exceed but this has the
same problem - when you end a session you no longer have the same screen up
and hence the GUI for the bittorent client is gone. Does anyone know of a
solution to this problem or point me in the right direction as to where i
would find infomration about this?

Many Thanks,

John

John wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> I have a machine set up on my home network running Mandrake 10.0. I have
> been using this machine to download large music videos etc from the likes
> of bittorrent. I used a KVM switch with the linux box and my main machine
> in order to control the linux box but it was a v.cheap switch (£5.00 on
> ebay) and hence the picture quality is extremely poor (plus it locks out
> my keyboard and mouse intermittently).
>
> I have removed the switch and now want to access the linux box from my
> other PC. I can SSH in and start downlaods etc but with the bittorrent
> stuff I would like to see how much I have downloaded/uploaded to make sure
> i dont become a file leach.
>
> The problem i have is that when i switch the machine off that i ssh'ed in
> from i then lose the screen that had all the details (i.e. if i ssh in
> again i dont have the original screen up again). I have exceed but this
> has the same problem - when you end a session you no longer have the same
> screen up and hence the GUI for the bittorent client is gone. Does anyone
> know of a solution to this problem or point me in the right direction as
> to where i would find infomration about this?
>
> Many Thanks,
>
> John

If you want X Windows, investigate installing a VNC server on the Linux box,
and a VNC client on your other box. Or else, use the GNU Screen program.

--
Patrick McDonnell
http://www.muncc.marmionacademy.org/
(E-Mail Removed)

John <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I have a machine set up on my home network running Mandrake 10.0. I have
> been using this machine to download large music videos etc from the likes of
> bittorrent. I used a KVM switch with the linux box and my main machine in
> order to control the linux box but it was a v.cheap switch (?5.00 on ebay)
> and hence the picture quality is extremely poor (plus it locks out my
> keyboard and mouse intermittently).
>
> I have removed the switch and now want to access the linux box from my other
> PC. I can SSH in and start downlaods etc but with the bittorrent stuff I
> would like to see how much I have downloaded/uploaded to make sure i dont
> become a file leach.
>
> The problem i have is that when i switch the machine off that i ssh'ed in
> from i then lose the screen that had all the details (i.e. if i ssh in again
> i dont have the original screen up again). I have exceed but this has the
> same problem - when you end a session you no longer have the same screen up
> and hence the GUI for the bittorent client is gone. Does anyone know of a
> solution to this problem or point me in the right direction as to where i
> would find infomration about this?
>
> Many Thanks,
>
> John

You can use a tool called screen (there should be a MDK package for it)
which allows you to disconnect from a terminal session and reconnect to
it later (from the same place or from anywhere else you can ssh in
from).

So, SSH into the box, run screen and start bittorrent. You can then
disconnect the screen session which will leave it running, close the SSH
session and turn your other box off. Later, you can ssh back in,
reconnect the screen session and there's your bittorrent details.

I do this all the time - works perfectly.

Note - are you talking about a graphical GUI for bittorrent? Screen
is a text only thing. I use btdownloadcurses or simmilar for my
bittorrent downloads.

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.networking.]
On 2005-01-17, John <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> The problem i have is that when i switch the machine off that i ssh'ed in
> from i then lose the screen that had all the details (i.e. if i ssh in again
> i dont have the original screen up again). I have exceed but this has the
> same problem - when you end a session you no longer have the same screen up
> and hence the GUI for the bittorent client is gone. Does anyone know of a
> solution to this problem or point me in the right direction as to where i
> would find infomration about this?

"man screen"

--

-John ((E-Mail Removed))