Different distro, just as hilarious.

I feel my geeky ability has improved since I began using Ubuntu, sometime in June of 2007.
I've abandoned GUI settings windows in favour of nano-ing my way through /etc.
I can get all the settings right.
I just can't do them in the right order.
Allow me to elaborate...

After a sudden urge to go distro-shopping, I installed Debian 4.0 on my Media Centre/File Server/Spare-box-I-mess with.
CLI-only, headless, configured through SSH. I was feeling all very happy and geeky.

At the moment, this box has 3 functions.

1. Sit there and hum.
2. Serve up my music over Samba.
3. Serve up my files over SSH.

Being a paid-up, card-carrying member of the tinfoil hat club, I began editing /etc/ssh/sshd_config, even though it was approaching the time that most folk wake up.
I'm nocturnal, what can I say?

Protocol 2 only, yup. RSA-based authentication, course. Disable root login, naturally.
Once I'd saved that, I decided it would be a good idea to add my laptop's RSA key to the authorized_keys file. *After* I set it to use RSA authentication...

And so, with a sense of tedious inevitability, I find myself dragging an old CRT monitor over to the machine, to undo the series of (perfectly sensible) steps I took.

Coming soon! More blog posts of my incompetance.