SSH Session Driving You Bonkers? Here’s the Quick-Fix Solution You Need to Know!

If you’re someone who spends a lot of time working on remote servers, you’ve probably encountered issues with SSH sessions. It’s frustrating to be kicked out of your session or have it hang, especially when you’re in the middle of an important task.

Fortunately, there’s a quick fix solution that can help alleviate these issues. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to implement this solution and get your SSH sessions back on track.

The Problem with SSH Sessions

SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol used to connect to remote servers securely. It allows you to remotely access the command line of a server, transfer files, and perform other tasks. However, SSH sessions can be prone to issues like timeout errors, hanging sessions, and interruptions due to network connectivity issues.

When you encounter these issues, it can be difficult to know what the root cause is. Is it a problem with your internet connection? Is the server overloaded? Are there issues with your SSH client? It’s not always clear, and this can make troubleshooting frustrating and time-consuming.

The Quick-Fix Solution: tmux

tmux (short for terminal multiplexer) is a powerful tool for managing terminal sessions. It allows you to create multiple sessions within one terminal window, detach from sessions and reattach them later, and share sessions with other users. It’s a handy tool for managing multiple tasks and keeping your sessions organized.

One of the benefits of using tmux is that it can help mitigate issues with SSH sessions. By launching your SSH session within a tmux session, you can keep your session running even if you’re disconnected from the server. tmux will keep your session alive and allow you to reattach to it later.

Installing tmux

Before you can use tmux, you’ll need to install it on your system. The installation process will vary depending on your operating system. Here are the steps for installing tmux on Ubuntu:

  1. Open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.
  2. Enter the following command to update the package manager: sudo apt-get update
  3. Enter the following command to install tmux: sudo apt-get install tmux

Launching an SSH Session in tmux

Now that you have tmux installed, you can launch your SSH session within a tmux session. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open a terminal window.
  2. Enter the following command to launch a new tmux session: tmux new -s mysession
  3. Enter the following command to launch your SSH session: ssh user@example.com
  4. You’re now connected to your remote server within the tmux session.

Detaching and Reattaching to a tmux Session

If you need to disconnect from your SSH session, you can detach from the tmux session and reattach it later. Here’s how:

  1. Press Ctrl + B, then release both keys.
  2. Press D to detach from the tmux session.
  3. You can now close your terminal window or shut down your computer. The tmux session will continue running on the server.
  4. To reattach to the tmux session, open a terminal window and enter the following command: tmux attach -t mysession

Conclusion

Using tmux to manage your SSH sessions can help alleviate issues with hanging sessions, timeout errors, and interruptions due to network connectivity issues. By launching your SSH session within a tmux session, you can stay connected to your remote server even if you’re disconnected from the internet or your computer shuts down.

If you’re tired of SSH sessions driving you bonkers, give tmux a try. It’s a powerful tool that can help make your remote work more organized and efficient.

If you have login to a remote SSH session before, you will know that there are times where the SSH session become unresponsive. it could be due to a break in the Internet connection, or that you were away and the session timeout. Whatever the reason is, when the SSH session becomes unresponsive, all the usual shortcut keys (Ctrl +Z, Ctrl + C, ESC) will fail to work. So how do we kill an unresponsive SSH session (other than closing the terminal window)?

The trick is easy. You just have to press “Enter”, follow by “~.” (a tilda and a dot, without the quotes). The “~” shortcut is an escape character and the dot represents a disconnection. So the “~.” combination allows you to close the SSH session.

Other escape characters you can use include:

  • ~.: Disconnect.
  • ~^Z: Background ssh.
  • ~#: List forwarded connections.
  • ~&: Background ssh at logout when waiting for forwarded connection / X11 sessions to terminate.
  • ~?: Display a list of escape characters.
  • ~B: Send a BREAK to the remote system (only useful for SSH protocol version 2 and if the peer supports it).
  • ~C: Open command line. Currently this allows the addition of port forwardings using the -L, -R and -D options (see above). It also allows the cancellation of existing remote port-forwardings using -KR[bind_address:]port. !command allows the user to execute a local command if the PermitLocalCommand option is enabled in ssh_config(5). Basic help is available, using the -h option.
  • ~R: Request rekeying of the connection (only useful for SSH protocol version 2 and if the peer supports it).

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

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