This repository contains scripts and instruction for improving the command line user experience of Ubuntu 12.04. Part of the stuff here is specific to embedded Linux development for the BeagleBoard.

Prepare the server

The server is the Ubuntu machine you wish to use for compilation. You should start by installing the openssh server and downloading improved config files (dot files).

sudo apt-get install openssh-server
wget -q -O - https://raw.github.com/LoEE/beaglesdk/master/skeleton.tar|tar -xp

The new config files:

1. provide aliases for du, ls and df so they show human readable file sizes;

2. add some .inputrc magic so that:

   • you can search the shell command history by typing a prefix and pressing the up arrow; for example by typing rsync you can cycle through all your rsync invocations;
   • Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right can be used jump over whole words;

I also recomend installing some additional software and allowing sudo without a password. This can be done using an included script:

sudo scripts/environment-setup

Prepare the client

The client is you everyday workstation/laptop (Linux or OS X works best). First let's improve it's ssh client configuration. Add the following directives to .ssh/config:

# GSSAPI probing can potentatially cause slowdowns and you are probably not going to use it
# https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/+bug/84899
GSSAPIAuthentication no

# Keep a control channel open to speed up subsequent connections:
ControlMaster auto
ControlPath ~/.ssh/%r@%h:%p
ControlPersist 120   # this only works with OpenSSH 5.6 or newer

# Send keep-alives and timeout the SSH session after 60 seconds
# without waiting for a TCP timeout (which can easily take several minutes):
ServerAliveInterval 30
ServerAliveCountMax 2

It is also convenient to define alternative names for frequently used hosts (especially if the server is running on a port other than 22 or your local username does not match the remote one). This alias can be used everywhere an ssh hostname is expected (including scp and rsync invocations)

Host bsdk
Hostname beaglesdk.example.com
User bsdk

Sometimes you may need to make a indirect connection through an intermediary. Let's assume we have access to an SSH host called edge and that edge can connect to 192.168.1.10 which we would like to call bsdk:

Host bsdk
Hostname 192.168.1.10
User bsdk
Port 2222
RemoteForward 2005 localhost:2005
ProxyCommand ssh edge -T nc %h %p

To avoid having to reenter passwords on every command we will setup key-based authentication. Running the following one-liner on your workstation will generate an ssh key pair (if you don't already have one) and then add it to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the specified server (bsdk in this example):

sh <(wget -q -O - https://raw.github.com/LoEE/beaglesdk/master/send-ssh-key) bsdk