
  I find the easiest way to start seti@home on remote boxes is with ssh,
using RSA authentication and ssh-agent as the parent of my X process.  Perhaps
that's because I already have all that set up (it's very nice to work with. :)
If you don't, this might sound a little complicated at first, but it's really
pretty simple once you grok what's going on.

Here's how you set it up:

Basic ssh setup:
 
  1) install ssh on all your boxes (if you haven't already) and start sshd
     on them.
  2) create your ~/.ssh files, making sure they're of the right permissions
     ( ssh-keygen; chmod 700 ~/.ssh ; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/* )
  3) Any hosts you wish to ssh TO must have the file 'authorized_keys' in
     ~/.ssh and your public key (identity.pub) must be in that file.  The
     rest can remain on your "master" box.
  4) Verify that you can ssh to a remote host using RSA authentication.
     (ssh remotehost, enter passphrase.)  You *must* be authenticated
     using the passphrase -- 'password' authentication does not count.
     If you're having trouble here, remember to look at sshd's logs.

Once that works, add ssh-agent into the picture:

  What ssh-agent does is start a secondary process, and it and any of its
  children have access to your private RSA key *after you run ssh-add*.
  So, I could do: 
    ssh-agent rxvt
    ssh-add <type in passphrase>
  ..and all commands I start from that rxvt will automatically authenticate.
  I prefer to do 'ssh-agent startx' and then -everything- that runs in my
  X session is so enabled.  So:

  5) ssh-agent startx [options]
  6) run ssh-add from an xterm (or whatever)
  7) verify that ssh-agent is working properly.  In an xterm:

     ssh remotehost
  
     ..and you should wind up logged into the remote host without having
     to type anything else.  You can even add that sort of thing to your
     menus. :)

   If all the above works, then setiherder should be able to use ssh to
   spawn remote processes as well, providing you remember to ssh-add upon
   X's startup.


Some things to watch out for with ssh:

  - don't forget to ssh-add; otherwise your ssh processes will want user
    input before they will spawn seti@home.  

  - Make sure and use the -t option to ssh to enable full terminal 
    capabilities.  If you don't, setiherder won't see the output of
    seti@home reliably.

  - make sure and xlock your display when you wander off if you use 
    ssh-agent. :)  If you'd prefer not to give your X session this 
    much power, you can start setiherder itself under ssh-agent.  This
    will give it access to your keys and nothing else.

-scromp

