Home / server / Questions / 138600
In Process
Valmir Pimenta
Asked: 2010-05-05 14:35:46 +0800 CST

Allow access to Linux Console

  • 772

Suppose one is running an SSH session into a GNU/Linux box of a client and he asks you to see "what you are doing". How can you allow this other party to see what's going on in your session?

linux ssh terminal console share

5 Answers

  1. You could try using the "screen" command. This will allow you to run a multiuser session which 2 users can connect and share. First you'll need to set the suid bit. screen comes with it turned off, and it is necessary for multiuser mode:

    sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/screen
sudo chmod 755 /var/run/screen

    The first user connect, running

    screen -S shared

    The "-S" just gives the session an easy to use name. To allow multiuser access, use "CTRL+A" to run screen commands:

    CTRL+A
:multiuser on
:acladd otheruser

    When otheruser connects over ssh, he just needs to run

    screen -x firstuser/shared

    to join the session

    • 12

  2. Worked like a charm.

    I also received an offline hint from a guy I chatted with proposing an alternate solution:

    user wishing to share uses "w" to view where the other guy is working...

    # w
 16:27:10 up 30 days,  8:37,  3 users,  load average: 0,99, 0,94, 0,89
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
root     tty1     -                26Apr10  9days  0.04s  0.01s login -- root
root     pts/0    192.168.2.25     15:31   54:29   0.04s  0.00s script
root     pts/1    192.168.2.235    16:21    3:29   0.05s  0.05s -bash

    now that we now were the other guy is working, we issue this:

    # script | tee /dev/pts/1

    This method has disadvantages to the one proposed by katriel, as it is one way only and if you forget to use exit to break the connection, the other pts keeps receiving data even if the user logs out of it, being a potential security threat. But I thought it was worth mentioning.

    Anyway thanks to katriel and the others.

    • 2

  3. Just run a VNC server on your workstation and let him connect to that. Cheap and easy :)

    • 1

  4. I have a small open-source project that (I hope) fills this need perfectly: Termbeamer.

    It lets you start a terminal session and send it to one or more other people across the internet. It works from behind firewalls and NAT and has a remote-control option if you want to let the other person "drive" -- good for pair programming.

    • 1

  5. Apenwarr has a good suggestion, but I recently used TeamViewer for just this purpose. It's similar to VNC, but requires ZERO installation, on both ends. No server install, no client install required. It even does NAT traversal with no configuration... something that VNC can't do.

    http://teamviewer.com/

    Try it, you'll fall in love.

    • 0