ssh - Too many authentication failures for username

If you have a lot of servers you can run into problems when trying to login - you can get lots of errors like this :

ssh - Too many authentication failures for username

I found the following page which explains some solutions but the best one I found for me was below :

http://superuser.com/questions/187779/too-many-authentication-failures-for-username


Just use this format :

ssh -o PubkeyAuthentication=no username@hostname.com

As ever, it is best to use keyless login and disable standard password login, but if you get stuck, or can't then this will help !

Xubuntu network sharing Samsung USB scanner

Another one down.

I have an intransigent SAMSUNG SCX-4x21 Series multifunction printer scanner that someone gave us. I'd have gone for the network version, but beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, I thought I'd try and network the scanner to the other workstations.

I first tried it by setting up saned. This was a major fail. If I accessed the scanner with scanimage -L I got a big error.

Ironically if I started saned in manual mode with /usr/sbin/saned -d128 it worked OK from a networked workstation.

Seems that there is an issue with Samsung scanners and sane to do with error messages. There are various posts around about this including on the sane FAQ list.

Solution is to use a wrapper :

On 'server' where the USB printer/scanner is connected :


edit /etc/defaults/saned and set RUN = NO


Install xinetd (I know it is deprecated but by the time it's dumped entirely I'll have moved on....)

sudo apt-get install xinetd

Configure /etc/xinetd.conf  (amend your network details accordingly)

# Simple configuration file for xinetd
#
# Some defaults, and include /etc/xinetd.d/

defaults
{
# add your network here
only_from = 10.0.0.0/24
instances = 60
log_type = FILE /var/log/xinetd.log
log_on_success = HOST PID
log_on_failure = HOST
cps = 25 30
}

includedir /etc/xinetd.d



Make new file in /etc/xinetd.d/saned with the following :


service saned
{
  port        = 6566
  protocol    = tcp
  disable     = no
  flags       = REUSE
  socket_type = stream
  wait        = no
  user        = root
  group       = saned
  server      = /usr/sbin/saned_wrapper
}



Make a new file called /usr/sbin/saned_wrapper with the following :

#!/bin/sh
#
# Need this for Samsung Scanners
# Put in in /usr/sbin and chmod 755 /usr/sbin/saned_wrapper
#
# Call saned with stderr redirected, to avoid strange crash
exec /usr/sbin/saned 2> /var/log/saned.log


sudo service xinetd restart

On the remote workstation make sure you add the IP address of the 'server' to /etc/saned.d/net.conf

Try connecting from a remote workstation with scanimage -L

Get a coffee and relax :-)

Nautilus Files split screen mode

Well, they did it again.

Bloody developers thinking they always know best.

Just updated a machine to Xubuntu Saucy 13.10 and installed Nautilus, my (ex) file manager of choice.

Hit F3 for split screen and nothing. What ???

Bit of a hunt around and I find that Nautilus is now Files and was taken over my those idiots at Gnome, and decided to drop split screen as it it didn't work on touch screen. What about the millions who DON'T have split screen and are never likely to ?

Where has CHOICE gone ? I'm talking about an option to leave in the F3 code. It wouldn't have been hard.
 
Here's what the anally retentive snob of a developer said when I had the audacity to criticise :

André Klapper [developer] 2013-12-25 13:16:21 UTC

Another unhelpful comment that created bugmail. 
John, to answer your question, see http://www.islinuxaboutchoice.com/

Why don't they LISTEN to people instead of just deciding what is right and enforcing without thinking. What makes THEM more right than any one else ?

I don't even USE Gnome per se on my Xubuntu.


Loads of posts refer:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1173648

From the diff to remove it :

From 14d39e66aeb5f6acf73e4cc4d07efcd45f7619cc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: William Jon McCann 
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 19:58:48 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Remove extra panes

Extra Pane mode was somewhat useful before GNOME 3 had side by side window mode.
The combination of panes and tabs is just too much. It is inconsistent
with the file chooser and doesn't work well with touch.  We would like to
add a more explicit copy/move feature shortly.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676858

Pricks.

Fortunately those folks at Mint seem to listen to customers and have made a fork called Nemo.

So :

sudo apt-get remove nautilus && sudo apt-get install nemo

And two fingers to Gnome.

Xubuntu Precise 12.04 VNC at login

I often login to our office desktops to give people a hand.

I used to use vino-server, but it only starts once the desktop is running. I wanted to be able to login from the login screen itself before the desktop loads. Time for a dive into using upstart.

After a hunt I found a good site with how to do it here VNC startup login

Anyway, in brief for Xubuntu I did this :

sudo apt-get install x11vnc

sudo touch /etc/init/x11vnc.conf

Edit the file and add the following :


start on login-session-start
script
/usr/bin/x11vnc -xkb -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -noxrecord -noxfixes -noxdamage -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc.pass -forever -bg -rfbport 5900 -o /var/log/x11vnc.log
end script


Now set your password here :

sudo x11vnc -storepasswd /etc/x11vnc.pass

Reboot and job done !