Networking Ubuntu & Mac OS X – “Fugu” It

Posted October 27, 2007

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There are more than a few ways to share files between Ubuntu and Apple’s Mac OS X. In fact, there are so many methods, I puked when trying to make sense of them all.

Thankfully a silly puffer fish exists in the form of an awesome Mac OS application. It’s called Fugu, and it’s about to make your life a hell of a lot easier.

Fugu allows you to easily connect to your Ubuntu machine (via SSH) from home (like a home network) or while you’re away.

I’ll show you how to combine the power of open-ssh with Fugu to create an Ubuntu/OS X bond that would make Neo weep with pride.

Gathering The Goods…

Before we dig into any installing, we need to figure out what your external and internal (network) IP address is for your Ubuntu computer.

To get your external IP address, I recommend going to whatismyip.com – your IP address will be sitting in front of your face as soon as the page loads. Done.

To get your computers network IP address (the IP address given to you by your router, assuming you have one) open terminal in Ubuntu and type ifconfig. You should see something similar to the following:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:A6:D2:B9
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:17 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:A6:CA:73
          inet addr:10.0.1.2  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::217:31ff:fea6:ca73/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:734005 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:634475 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:626690669 (597.6 MB)  TX bytes:243085749 (231.8 MB)
          Interrupt:21 Base address:0x6000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:6264 (6.1 KB)  TX bytes:6264 (6.1 KB)

The highlighted code above is your computers IP. It’ll probably start with 10.x.x.x, 192.x.x.x or 127.x.x.x – in any case, it’ll should be within the eth0 or eth1 sections.

Installing Open-SSH

Now that you’ve got your external IP and your computers IP, it’s time to install open-ssh on Ubuntu. Open Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Administration) and search for openssh-server. Install it. Done.

Installing Fugu

While on your Mac, go to the Fugu website (http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/) and download the dmg file. Install it. Done.

Rollin’ With Fugu

After installing Fugu, open it. You should see something like this:
Fugu Screenshot

Assuming you’re at home wanting to connect to your Ubuntu machine, in the “Connect to:” field, type your Ubuntu computer (internal) IP address. (Remember, this should something like 10.x.x.x, 192.x.x.x, or 127.x.x.x) If you’re away from home and you want to connect to your Ubuntu machine, type your external IP address in the “Connect to:” field.
The username should be the same username you use to login to your Ubuntu machine.
Use port 22. (This is the port used by SSH)
Hit Connect. (If you see a warning message appear, click continue.)
Enter your Ubuntu machine’s password associated with the username you used. (You may save the password to OS X’s keychain so you never have to enter it again.)

Fugu should connect you with your Ubuntu machine!

Oh yeah. DONE.

7 Comments so far

Le Tenebreux on April 17th, 2008

I suppose this will work with any computers with FTP clients, and is especially handy if you have a fixed IP. I guess this will also work if your goal is a one time, easy transfer of files from one computer to another (e.g. if you’re trying to migrate from one computer to another, in which case this works better than sneakernet because you don’t have to worry as much about permissions). I don’t think this technique really works if your goal is, say, to access your iTunes library on RhythmBox. Still, this could be useful.
Stephen on April 26th, 2008

thanks, worked perfectly
Jon on April 27th, 2008

Thanks, super clear instructions – works a treat!
Phil on September 12th, 2008

I followed the instructions and got “Permission denied” when I tried to log in. ID and password were correct. Incidentally, and probably pertinent, when I used Mac’s “connect to server,” I got this error: “Volume Print$ could not be mounted.” Any suggestions?
David on September 28th, 2008

Many thanks for the clear, concise instructions! They worked great with my 8.04 Hardy Heron installation. It would have taken me a very long time to figure this out on my own.

This procedure will also work with PCLinuxOS 2007 installations, provided that you first install the “drakwizard” package via Synaptic. When you’ve done that, go to

PCLinuxOS Control Center > Network Services > OpenSSH daemon configuration

Select the “for newbies” option and click through the steps presented to you by the wizard. Once that is complete, you should be able to connect easily.
d-railed on February 16th, 2009

Thanks a million… That couldn’t have been any easier..
deashibarai on March 1st, 2009

Thank you so much. This saved an week of copying to an external disk with 250mb of ram. Sooooo happy….

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