[winswitch] SSH CLI usage - prompt for password, NO keys!

[Antoine Martin]

On 07/07/2021 00:13, xpra--- via shifter-users wrote:
> 
> Trying to connect to the XPRA server via SSH, but running into issues
> that it seems to insist on SSH KEYS.
It will try the keys it can find (and an ssh agent if you have one) then
fallback to the password authentication - assuming that the server
allows it.
If you specify a password on the command line, it will try that first.

You can also configure which authentication steps will be attempted, for
password only:
xpra attach --ssh=paramiko:auth=password

> I don't use those, thats my choice,
> I have my reasons, and don't want to derail this in to a debate on those.
> 
> I can't seem to get XPRA to go this route, I've tried all kinds of
> formats and options
> 
> xpra attach ssh://xpra@xpra:100
> xpra attach ssh/xpra at xpra/100
> xpra <options for password or password file>
I have amended the documentation to make this clearer:
https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/blob/master/docs/Network/SSH.md

We use the standard URI format (this is true for all connection modes,
not just SSH):
xpra attach ssh://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/DISPLAY

> xpra_launcher
> 
> No joy.
Please always include the full error messages and output.

You can run your client with "--debug ssh" to see more details on which
step of the SSH connection it is failing at.

> 
> ssh to the box, and X11 forward works...seems to be a hack kludge....
> 
> ssh -XCl xpra xprabox
> then
> xpra attach :100
Yes, that's a bad idea.
You're using SSH X11 forwarding with xpra, the performance will be terrible.

> I've looked at too many man pages, web sites, XPRA wiki and am clearly
> missing something to get this to ask for a password....
> 
> Any clues for idiots lost in the forest??? Thanks!
It should just work out of the box and prompt you for a password using
pinentry or a dialog box, depending on your OS / DE and version in use.

It may just be a trivial misconfiguration or missing dependency
somewhere. Without further details, it's impossible to say.

Depending on what OS you're running on, you can also switch to the older
ssh backend:
xpra attach --ssh="ssh"

Cheers,
Antoine