wonders of linux

by Dustin on 5/02/2009

Recently, I was wrapping up my day at Bear Mountain. By day I go snowboarding and by night I poked and prodded around with computers, the internet, and whatnot. Well, one of the days I was there my friend contacts me in a panic begging me to come fix his computer. I of course tell him that I’m in Big Bear at the moment and not sure what I can do to help. At that I can practically see his heart sink, so I ask him what the problem is.

He starts into this story about how he has a paper due the next day but he can’t get logged into his computer. Apparently his roommate dropped something on the keyboard and the number row doesn’t work anymore, which limits him from logging into his machine (alphanumeric passwords are good ideas, ladies and gentlemen!). He’s using Fedora on his home machine, by my suggestion, so I know I can save the day.

As he continues this story I use ssh to connect to his machine…

ssh user@remote-host

..and open /etc/gdm/gdm.conf

I change two lines from:

AutomaticLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLogin=

to

AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=username

I save the file and restart gdm (Gnome Desktop Manager).

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

By this time, he’s finishing his story about how he needs to get his paper written or he’s going to fail, never graduate and end up being homeless, etc.

I interrupt him to tell him to look at his computer, which is now logged in as his user, never requiring a password or username.

The phone goes silent. I ask if he’s still there. He is… he’s speechless.

I remind him this is all due to the wonders of Linux and wish him good luck with his paper.

Simple as that. SSH connection, two commands, a smart phone, and a very thankful friend all from a distance.

There is 1 comment in this article:

  1. 10/02/2009Jenna Awad says:

    He’s speechless because you are quite amazing Dustin! :) Okay, two questions for you: #1 I need your email address! (I know that isn’t a question). #2 Remember a while ago I was asking you that question about my internet access messing up on the mac? Well, I need your expertise again! Okay, and how about instead of staying up in the mountain area, you come down to the valleys for once?? Haha. I miss you, buddy. Ok, you know my email (the gmail one). Contact me when you can. :)

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