The Ultimate questions on Linux, the Universe, and Everything

On any linux based server, it is possible to protect SSH with two-factor authentication using the Google Authenticator PAM module. This is actually easy to install and configure. Login to your SSH server and install the module. On Debian (or for instance Raspbian): sudo apt-get install libpam-google-authenticator On Fedora: dnf install google-authenticator Create the verification key for the user. I prefer to not allow root access to a server, so this step should be run as the user that should be able to login: google-authenticator You can answer y to most questions. Finally, you will get a QR code that can be scanned by your phone TOTP app (any standard TOTP application will do). Make sure to store the emergency codes in a safe place, such as a Keepass database or on a paper. Now you need to make a few changes, so that PAM (which is responsible for authentication on most linux systems) asks for the verification code in addition to your password when logging in thr...

Tablets usually have only a few USB ports. The Viewsonic Viewpad 10pi has two. I'll show later that this makes things a bit complicated. Because of the badly supported hardware in Z670 tablets, you have to improvise a few things. The graphics chip doesn't necessary let the installer run in grahical mode and the Wi-fi chip is not detected automatically by the installer. I first tried installing Fedora 20. It failed, because the Wi-fi chip was not detected and the installer refused to continue without a configured network device (at least the text mode installer, because the graphical installer refused to run). Using an external USB Wi-fi device helped, but Fedora fails to start X-windows on this graphics chip. I'm not sure what the problem is. It doesn't load the required module, gma500_gfx, automatically. Loading it manually doesn't help. Then I tried Debian. It turned out that Debian automatically loads the graphical driver and it is possible to start X. This...