Connecting to a TTY from another computer

How do I access one of my TTYs from a computer on my home network?

For example, if my Ubuntu PC is running, and I want to access it's terminal from my Mac or Windows PCs that are on the same network.

Solution 1:

Apart from using screen you could use linuxvnc (manpage), a "VNC server to allow remote access to a tty". It can grab a TTY session and display it for use in a VNC window. Install it via apt:

sudo apt-get install linuxvnc

Once that is done, fire it up: (root access is required to grab TTYs)

sudo linuxvnc X

Where 'X' is the TTY # you want to grab. You could do this in a SSH session if you don't have physical access to the server. linuxvnc should indicate that it's listening on port 5900. Now connect with a VNC Viewer of your choice.

Solution 2:

Install SSH server on the Ubuntu machine, then use an SSH client on Windows or Mac.

sudo install ssh

To connect from Mac I believe you may be able to use a command line client:

ssh my.ubuntu.box -u myusername

To connect from Windows you can use a GUI client, such as PuTTY.

(if you want to connect to an existing TTY, e.q. to start a session on the Ubuntu box locally, then walk to your Windows machine and connect to the same session from there then you need to use screen command in combination with SSH access. See man screen for more details)