Total, Complete 100% Noob looking for help

[chez17]

Hi all, last night I took the first steps into the wonderful world of linux, that first step of course was having the installation not work at all. I need help, I seriously dont have any idea what Im doing. All I want to get started is have a distro that I can use with command line, I already know how to use a graphical desktop. All I want to do is be able to install it, set it up so I can ssh connect to it over my LAN. Thats all for now. Evenutally I would love to host my own web site. If anybody has a tutorial that shows step by step on how to do this or could recommend a distro, that would help. I have tried Ubuntu Server and didn't have much luck. Maybe I installed it right but did the PuTTY connection wrong. Do you have to do something different if you are connecting to a router from a wireless connection? Im so lost. Any help would be appreciated.

[Cabhan]

Your post is so contradictory that it's hard to follow what happened.

Having never used Linux before, I'm not sure that I would recommend that you immediately jump into a commandline-only distro. It's very easy to change distros, and any distro has full access to the terminal for commandline operations. Why not try installing Ubuntu (full Ubuntu) and see how that works for you?

Once you have Ubuntu installed, you can follow the instructions at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSHHowto
to learn about setting up an SSH server and using ssh.

Once you have more specific questions, it will be a lot easier to help you out.

[chez17]

Sorry, Im kinda flustered. Allow me to clarify what I want to do and hopefully you can push me in the right direction.

I am on my laptop that runs XP.
I just got a new box that I tried installing Ubuntu Server on
My laptop connects to the router I have wirelessly
The box is connected to the router with a cable
I want to be able to connect to the box from my laptop

I just want to be able to do that and get to a good starting point. I have a small apartment and want to get rid of the monitor I have hooked up to the linux box, hence the ssh connection. I was wondeirng if anybody had a tutorial that shows how to do this or could recommend a distro that would work for this. Evetually, I would like to host my own website, obviously thats a bit further down the road.

[Cabhan]

Alrighty.

Well, any distro can be used to receive SSH connections. The biggest issue here is just involving the eventual removal of the monitor (what we call "headless operation").

Now, I would still recommend at least starting with a fully graphical distro, and maybe switching to one without an X Server (the X server provides graphical stuff) later on. However, if you'd prefer to not do that, that's okay, since you have another box that you could use to surf with, say, Firefox (as opposed to lynx, the happy text-based browser).

Now, there's a reason that Ubuntu is popular for new users, which is that it's very simple to install. What went wrong during the installation? If we can get that installed, the rest should be easy. Ubuntu has a fantastic package manager (how you install programs), and the only other comparable ones in my mind (Debian, which Ubuntu is a fork of, and Gentoo) are FAR more difficult to install.

So let's see if we can troubleshoot the installation. What happened? How far did you get? Did you get an error message? What sort of hardware are you running? And so on.

[chez17]

Ok, I finally got the install working for Ubuntu Server. I got the ssh client via apt-get and it is installed. I still cannot connect. I have the PuTTY client for windows and I dont know how to connect to the box. I have been trying to read up about it, but I am confused because I am going through a router. I am unsure if I need a static ip, which I have set up with the method on this page:

The Perfect Setup - Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) - Page 3 | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

So I think that should work, but its not. I read on a post somewhere that maybe I have to unblock a router port, Im not sure if that even makes sense. I am using a linksys wireless router. Is that helpful?

Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.

[smolloy]

It sounds like you're going in the right direction, but are still confused about one or two issues.

1/ You say you have installed the ssh client via apt-get, but have you started it?
2/ You don't need a static IP at all. If you are only going to connect from your laptop, which is on the same network as the linux box, then the IP addresses will be handed out by the router, and will only change if you reboot (and probably not even then). From the linux box, type the following to determine your IP address,

sudo ifconfig

It will most likely be 192.168.0.2, or something quite similar.
3/ Unblocking ports: I think you only have to do this if you plan to ssh in from outside your network. Your router should have all internal ports open, and only firewall stuff coming in from the internet.

It sounds to me like you only have to start sshd to get things going. I'm not familiar with Ubuntu (sorry), but I'm sure this will be easy enough. Good luck!

[Cabhan]

Right. When you're behind the same router, you don't need to worry about router stuff.

The command to start sshd (ssh daemon) is probably something like:

sudo /etc/init.d/sshd start

I don't remember where Ubuntu's start files are stored (it may be rc.d instead of init.d), but you basically need to start the service.

But yeah: then you use ifconfig to figure out your local IP on the Linux box, and connect away!