How to install SSH server on Ubuntu?

sllinux · 02-15-2010, 04:29 PM

I just installed Ubuntu 9.10 on a machine here. Tried to SSH to it and failed. Tried to "ssh localhost" from the machine itself and that failed. Did a quick google search and found out that an SSH server is not installed by default.

But how do I install it?

I tried the following, which failed:

Code:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package openssh-server is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package openssh-server has no installation candidate

I also clicked on a link with address aptpenssh-server in Firefox, which tried to open it with apturl, but then I got an error that said "Package 'openssh-server' is virtual".

AlucardZero · 02-15-2010, 04:37 PM

did you update your sources first?

If so, and it still doesn't work, post the contents of sources.list and "apt-cache policy openssh-server"

sllinux · 02-15-2010, 04:38 PM

I'm not sure what you mean by "update your sources first".

bret381 · 02-15-2010, 04:38 PM

I'm not real familiar with apt. can you do searches? if not, I know you can search with synaptic package manager. You might just do a search for ssh and see what it turns up. you may be inputting the package wrong.

AlucardZero · 02-15-2010, 04:42 PM

I mean "apt-get update".

worm5252 · 02-15-2010, 05:23 PM

Basic apt tutorial.

Apt looks at your sources.list file to find the download servers for all software to install. Package managers such as synaptic also look at your sources.list file. This file is located at /etc/apt/sources.list. Apt is a very useful and powerful tool that is very easy to use. Synaptic is a GUI interface available in the gnome desktop environment to control apt. Adversely Kpackage does the same thing in the KDE desktop environment.

If you want to search for a package you can use apt-cache

Code:

apt-cache search <package name>

To install a package use apt-get install

Code:

apt-get install <package name>

To Remove a package use apt-get remove

Code:

apt-get remove <package name>

When removing software in some files such as configurations are not always removed. To completely remove a package use the purge switch

Code:

apt-get remove --purge <package name>

To fix broken packages use the force option with install

Code:

apt-get -f install

*** Note there was not a package name specified here. This is intentional.

To perform a system update use apt-get upgrade

Code:

apt-get upgrade

To perform a distribution upgrade use apt-get dist-upgrade

Code:

apt-get dist-upgrade

To re-load your sources.list file use apt-get update

Code:

apt-get update

using the above information you should be able to do almost anything related to package management on your system.

worm5252 · 02-15-2010, 05:24 PM

Also can you post the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list?

sllinux · 02-15-2010, 05:29 PM

Thank you everyone. I did the "sudo apt-get update" (took a while), and then the "sudo apt-get install openssh-server" worked!

AlucardZero · 02-15-2010, 05:29 PM

Always update your sources before performing any package installs or upgrades.