{"id":12392,"date":"2019-03-26T22:20:57","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=12392"},"modified":"2019-03-26T22:20:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:20:57","slug":"how-to-use-conspy-to-view-and-control-remote-linux-virtual-consoles-in-real-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/03\/26\/how-to-use-conspy-to-view-and-control-remote-linux-virtual-consoles-in-real-time\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Conspy to View and Control Remote Linux Virtual Consoles in Real Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Computer networks have made it possible for end users to interact one with another in several ways. They have also provided a way to perform remote work without the hassle and the costs involved with traveling (or perhaps walking to a nearby office).<\/p>\n

Recently, I discovered a program called\u00a0conspy<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0Debian<\/strong>\u00a0stable repositories and was glad to find out that it is available for\u00a0Fedora<\/strong>\u00a0and derivatives as well.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Conspy<\/a><\/p>\n

Conspy \u2013 Watch Remote Linux Commands in Real Time<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It allows a user to see what is being displayed on a Linux virtual console, and also to send keystrokes to it in real time. In a certain way, you can think of\u00a0conspy<\/strong>\u00a0as similar to\u00a0VNC<\/a>, with the difference that conspy operates in text mode (thus saving resources and making it possible to also support CLI-only servers) and in top of all that, does not require a server-side service to be installed prior to being used.<\/p>\n

That said, you only need to make sure that there is network connectivity to the remote computer and you will learn to love\u00a0conspy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Installing conspy in Linux<\/h3>\n

In\u00a0Debian 8<\/strong>\u00a0and derivatives,\u00a0conspy<\/strong>\u00a0is available directly from the repositories, so installing it is as simple as:<\/p>\n

# aptitude update && aptitude install conspy\r\n<\/pre>\n
Whereas in\u00a0CentOS 7<\/strong>\u00a0and other\u00a0Fedora-based<\/strong>\u00a0distros you first have to enable the\u00a0Repoforge<\/strong>\u00a0repository:<\/p>\n
1.<\/strong>\u00a0Go to\u00a0http:\/\/pkgs.repoforge.org\/rpmforge-release<\/a>\u00a0and search for the latest version of the repository (as of September 2015 the latest package is\u00a0rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpm<\/strong>) and download it:<\/p>\n
# wget http:\/\/pkgs.repoforge.org\/rpmforge-release\/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpm\r\n<\/pre>\n
2.<\/strong>\u00a0Install the repository package:<\/p>\n
# rpm \u2013Uvh rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpm\r\n<\/pre>\n
3.<\/strong>\u00a0And then install the\u00a0conspy<\/strong>\u00a0package itself:<\/p>\n
# yum update && yum install conspy\r\n<\/pre>\n
Testing Environment Used for conspy<\/h3>\n
To see how\u00a0conspy<\/strong>\u00a0works, we will\u00a0ssh<\/strong>\u00a0into a\u00a0Debian 8<\/strong>\u00a0server [IP 192.168.0.25<\/strong>] (using Terminal or\u00a0gnome ter<\/a>, for example) where the ssh daemon is listening on port\u00a011222<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
# ssh \u2013p 11222 user@192.168.0.25\r\n<\/pre>\n
Right next to our Terminal, we will place a\u00a0Virtualbox<\/strong>\u00a0window that will be used to display\u00a0ttys<\/strong>. Remember that you will need to press Right\u00a0Ctrl + F1<\/strong>\u00a0through\u00a0F6<\/strong>\u00a0to switch between ttys inside a Virtualbox window, and\u00a0Ctrl + Alt + F1<\/strong>\u00a0through\u00a0F6<\/strong>\u00a0to switch between consoles in a real (i.e. not virtualized) server.<\/p>\n
Using conspy to Display and Control ttys<\/h3>\n
To launch\u00a0conspy<\/strong>, ssh into the remote server and then just type:<\/p>\n
# conspy\r\n<\/pre>\n
followed by a\u00a0tty<\/strong>\u00a0number, (1 through 6). You will notice that the background color of your Terminal changes. We will use the\u00a0tty<\/strong>\u00a0command to identify the file name of the terminal currently connected to standard input. If a tty is not supplied as argument, the currently active virtual console is opened and tracked.<\/p>\n
Note that after launching the program as:<\/p>\n
# conspy 1\r\n<\/pre>\n
The first terminal\u00a0(tty1)<\/strong>\u00a0is displayed instead of\u00a0pts\/0<\/strong>\u00a0(the initial\u00a0pseudo-terminal<\/strong>\u00a0for a ssh connection):<\/p>\n
\n
\"Conspy<\/a><\/p>\n
Conspy Usage<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
To exit, press\u00a0Esc<\/strong>\u00a0three times in quick succession.<\/p>\n
Watch Conspy in Action<\/h3>\n
To better see conspy in action, please take a minute to watch the following screencasts:<\/p>\n
1.<\/strong>\u00a0Keystrokes being sent from the\u00a0client<\/strong>\u00a0to remote\u00a0tty<\/strong>:<\/p>\n