matsu

Howto: mounting your Mac filesystem through the internet using SSH

This brief tutorial will teach how to mount the entire filesystem of a fixed Mac computer connected to the internet through encrypted SSH so it shows up just like a network drive on any Mac you want, through any internet connection.

I’ll be talking about the host Mac (the one where the original filesystem resides) as host, and the moving Mac as the client, where the remote volumes will be read/written from.

Requirements:

1. Make sure you have admin privileges on both the host and client computers (although running your main account with admin privileges is not advised);
2. Make sure that on the host machine that you’re either connected directly to the internet and have TCP port 22 not firewalled or you have privileges to reconfigure your internet router to re-route port 22 requests from the internet to the host computer;
3. Make sure that you can access the host computer from the internet, either by having a fixed IP address (not normal on domestic aDSL or Cable connections), or by using a free service such as DynDns.org (this explanation goes beyond the scope of this howto – search for the solution for your own router or Mac on the internet);

Procedures on the host machine:

1. On System Preferences, under “Internet and Network” you’ll find the “Sharing” icon, click it;
2. Under “Services”, turn “Remote Login” on – authenticate yourself as necessary beforehand if needed;
3. Open a terminal window on the same machine, and type ssh yourusername@127.0.0.1 to test if in fact the SSH service has become activated – follow the instructions;
4. If the computer is connected directly to the internet, also under “Sharing”, you’ll find the firewall tab, click on the allow column for “Remote Login – SSH”;
5. Or if you’re connected to the internet through a router, you’ll have to look for port mappings or something equivalent on the router, to relay all internet requests for port 22 from the internet to the host computer (this explanation goes beyond the scope of this howto – search for the solution for your own router on the internet).

Procedures on the client machine:

You will need three pieces of software:

• MacFUSE – obtainable here;
• sshfs – also obtainable here;
• MacFusion – a wrapper to make everything more user friendly, obtainable here, make sure the version you’re downloading is compatible with the core version of MacFUSE you obtained (as I’m writing this, everything is a bit under development, so there are incompatible beta versions floating around)

1. Install MacFUSE and reboot, followed by installing sshfs and MacFusion (which in theory don’t need a system restart to work);
2. On a terminal window on the client, outside from the host’s LAN (i.e., connected through the internet) test first if you can SSH to the host machine, by typing ssh username@completedomain.com
3. If you can login into your account, the next step is to fire up MacFusion (which should be located in your Applications folder of your client machine
4. MacFusion is really simple – preferences are resumed to setting MacFusion to startup itself at boot, to check for updates to itself on Startup, and what to do when the client Mac goes to sleep and resumes.
5. The only thing missing now is to add, if you wish, the host computer to MacFusion’s favorites list – you’ll have to supply the name (whatever you wish), the server (without any “http” or similar prefixes), the Port can be left at 22, you can change the Server Path to / if you want for instance to access the “Volumes” directory to access any external disks that specific user has access to, and the most likely authentication method you’ll be using is “Password”.
6. The first time you try to mount (connect to) to the host’s filesystem from the client machine, MacFusion will even be nice enough to give you the option to store the password in the Keychain – this is up to you, if you trust you computing space enough to store passwords or not.

This is it! If everything worked, you’ll have a brand new volume on your desktop, that works exactly like a local LAN drive, with the permissions of the user you logged yourself as. Now you can do backups remotely through the internet, do anything you could do with a local LAN drive, but through a fully encrypted tunnel, and just limited by both the upstream and downstream speeds of both the host’s and client’s machine internet connections.

New home!

Taking this recovery time of doing nothing, I had an idea about a new address for matsu.

Instead of the old and inelegant http://matsu.blogdns.net I managed to register a .su address (Soviet Union!) to get the very short (and in my opinion) elegant http://mat.su

The old address will be redirected for a good while, and it will take some time until Google re-indexes the content.

Why I have been away

Last June 20th on my morning commute to work I had what could be called an encounter of the third kind – between me in my Majesty 400 scooter and a semi-truck. I was in the rightmost lane, and the semi-truck was in the center lane, just to my left (I was still behind it by a few meters). The driver decided that he wanted to exit the main road to the right, so instead of changing lanes first and then turning, he just did a 90 degree turn cutting my lane. I was boxed in, between his trailer, the rig, and the sidewalk on my right. I braked hard, falling down on my left side, and skidded all the way to the still moving rig. The scooter and me impacted the right side of the rig at a relatively slow speed (less than 10km/h), but I got stuck between the rig’s wheels, the last one running over my left leg, and the truck stopped about two meters afterwards. I ended laying down, facing up, below the truck’s trailer.

In an amazing show of the laws of physics, together with my strong constitution , I didn’t break a single bone, but suffered major internal bleeding and bruising. I had to take five units of blood. Almost two weeks later (see updates below) I’m still in the hospital. I don’t believe in luck – but if the wheel had run me over 10cm higher in my body, I’d probably wouldn’t be here typing this. And if it had run me over 10 cm closer to my centerline, Carolina would probably have to remain a single child!

So what does the future hold? If I had no qualms about the anxiety I’d induce in my family, I’d keep on riding – but I can’t – if I did, they would always be on the brink of a nervous breakdown. So I’m going to do the most positive thing I can think of to turn this bad incident into a great one! I’m going to sell the Majesty and buy a Canon 5D plus a few lenses…

I still believe riding motorcycles is not the most dangerous thing in the world – if I had been in a small car the end result could also have been slightly messy. The only thing missing now is a way to escape this hospital. Any tips?

Update: I’m going to be operated on tonight (July 5th), to get all the blood that shouldn’t be inside my leg drained. It’s a simple operation, and they expect it to accelerate my recovery! Hope so!

Update: I just got out (25 minutes ago) from the operating room. Everything went well. Modern anesthetics are just awesome, I’m fully conscious, not nauseous at all.

Update: July 8th – I managed to get up on crutches and walk about 10 meters!!!! I’m so happy!

Update: July 10th – I still have a fever, I’m not leaving the hospital so soon. Oh well.

Update: July 13th – They stopped the antibiotics so they can run blood cultures, to see if the fever’s origin is pathogenic or metabolic. I was having some shoulder pain also, and they managed to get it down to manageable levels today at physiotherapy, so I’m in a very good mood. I might need to be operated on again to remove all the dead skin in the leg, and perhaps do some local skin graft transplants (it’s not as gruesome as it seems). The main thing is that I’ll be here in the hospital quite a bit longer than I was initially expecting, but I have an internet connection, movies to watch, and above all, lots of friends visiting, so in the end it hasn’t been such a bad experience!

Update: July 14th – My new hospital look!!

Easier to cool, easier to clean!

Update: July 23rd – my second and hopefully last operation, where they will drain some of the liquid that remained in different cavities, and take overall care of my skin (including possibly some skin grafts from my own leg) is going to be on Thursday the 26th. Seeing that the post-op will take about a week, I should be home on the first week of August.

Update: July 25th – tomorrow’s operation is set to start around 20h00 (8pm)

Update: July 27th – during the operation last night they found pockets of pus inside, due to a bacteria called serratia, so I’m taking antibiotics, both through the vein as by direct application on the wounds. The question is that I will still need the skin graft transplants, and the dressings (with the direct application antibiotics) must be changed under general anesthesia. This means I have at least a minimum of three to four weeks in the hospital.

Update: August 3rd – I’ve had so far two scrubbings under general anesthesia, everything is going fine, I haven’t had any fevers since I started with the antibiotics. Lets hope the infection goes away quickly!!

Update: August 7th – I had another surgical scrubbing yesterday, also under general anesthesia, and today I received news about the possible path things will take, what the doctors are planning: two more surgical scrubbings, this Thursday and next Monday (the 13th), and if everything is ok I’ll be operated on to get the skin grafts on Thursday the 16th of August. I’ll probably have to stay in the hospital five to seven more days after that, so I should be going home around the 23rd of August. All in all, good news, and at least there’s a plan now!

Update: August 16th – I had my final operation a few hours ago, it went well, but they had to resort to removing skin from my right leg to graft on the left one (they told me they would try to avoid that and get all the necessary skin from the good parts of the left leg, but apparently that wasn’t possible). I now have to lay in bed, very still, so the ‘new’ skin forms a good bond with the underlying tissue, at least until Monday or Tuesday. My surgeon is visiting me tomorrow, she’ll give me more details about the operation then.

Update: August 21st – I saw my leg for the first time yesterday since the operation. To tell you the truth, I got a bit of a shock, not from the skin grafts, but on how distorted the shape of the leg has become. It looks like the gnawed leg of a chair after a dog has had it’s way with it. At least it’s all above the knee, so I can still use shorts without making little children run away from me. I’ll still have to stay in bed at least until next Thursday, so this is taking more time that I was expecting.

Update: August 27th – Finally at home! After 68 days! It was a pleasant surprise, as I was expecting the doctor to come tomorrow instead of today. It feels great!