Sometimes it is necessary to login to your VortexBox and enter commands to fix problems. Here's how to do it:
(using a Keyboard and Monitor IE NOT Headless)
If the VortexBox does not reboot, or does not come up on your network, you will have to use this method.
Plug a monitor and USB keyboard into the VortexBox. Hit the Enter key one or more times. You should get a login: prompt. Login as root, password vortexbox. If you installed VortexBox yourself from the VortexBox iso, you may have specified a different password than vortexbox. If so, use the password you specified.
If the monitor stays dark, you may have to reboot your VortexBox to activate it.
If the VortexBox comes up on your network and has an IP address, you can use one of the following methods to log in remotely:
a. You can install Shell In A Box to get web browser access to the command line. See Shell In A Box.
b. If you are using the Chrome or Chromium browser, you can install the Secure Shell Chrome extension for remote login. See http://vortexbox.org/threads/3771-Chrome-extension-for-remote-login for details.
c. If you are using the Firefox browser, you can install FireSSH. See FireSSH Help(external link) for details.
You will need telnet/ssh client like CryptoTerm, PuTTY Portable, or PuTTY to do the login. PuTTY is fairly simple; CryptoTerm and PuTTY Portable have more features and provide a nicer interface. I recommend using CryptoTerm.
Download CryptoTerm from here: CryptoTerm Download(external link) The current version is 1.6. You will need the CryptoTerm terminal emulator and not the FTP client. Using CryptoTerm with Midnight Commander is a highly effective way to manage the VortexBox filesystem.
Download PuTTY Portable from here: PuTTY Portable Download(external link)
Download PuTTY from here: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe(external link)
See Improving PuTTY Settings(external link) for useful info on configuring PuTTY and PuTTY Portable.
Once you have CryptoTerm or PuTTY installed on your machine, fire it up and enter
the vortexbox IP address as host,
root as the user,
vortexbox as the password.
If you installed VortexBox yourself from the VortexBox iso, you may have specified a different password than vortexbox. If so, use the password you specified.
You are now ready to enter commands.
Mac OS X already provide Terminal, a command-line window, that can be used to login to VortexBox. Terminal is in the Utilities folder under Applications.
Start up Terminal and enter
ssh root@<vortexbox-ip-address>
where <vortexbox-ip-address> is the IP address of your VortexBox. On my system, this would be
ssh [email protected]
Then enter the password vortexbox when prompted.
If you installed VortexBox yourself from the VortexBox iso, you may have specified a different password than vortexbox. If so, use the password you specified.
You are now ready to enter commands.
Note: If the ssh command gives you an error “WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!” enter the following commands:
cd rm .ssh/known_hosts
and try the ssh command again.
Same as on the Mac. Use any Linux terminal emulator, such as Gnome Terminal, Konsole, or xterm.