Connection & user

How to connect to server and create a new user

To install a new server, you have to choose a provider. I use Hetzner VPS with Debian 12. Of course you can use any other provider and any other OS.

INFO

When I offer to create new user, I call it jack, you can use any other username.

Connect to server

If it's setup of server, you have to disable ssh with root and allow it with a custom user.

ssh root@xxx.xx.xx.xxx

Get IP address from server

ip addr show eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2; }' | sed 's/\/.*$//'

Add sudo (Debian)

If sudo is not installed, you have to install it. To execute this, you have to be connected with root.

su - root

apt install -y sudo

After that, you can add new user and add it to sudo group.

adduser jack
usermod -aG sudo jack

Now you can exit SSH session and connect with new user.

INFO

You have to kill current session with exit command to reload groups.

exit

You can now connect with new user and use sudo command.

sudo timeout

You can set sudo timeout to 10 minutes, so you don't have to type password every time you use sudo command. And it's more secure than 15 minutes, which is default.

sudo visudo

Defaults        timestamp_timeout=10

Add new user

Add new user (you can use any other name)

sudo adduser jack
sudo usermod -aG sudo jack

Exit SSH connection to reload groups

exit

Fix locales

Fix locales for new user

sudo vim /etc/default/locale

LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

Generate locales

export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
dpkg-reconfigure locales

Copy SSH keys from root

Copy SSH keys from root to new user

sudo mkdir /home/jack/.ssh/
sudo cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/jack/.ssh/
sudo chown -R jack:jack /home/jack/.ssh/
sudo chmod -R 700 /home/jack/.ssh/

Exit SSH connection

exit

Connect with new user

Connect to server with new user

ssh jack@xxx.xx.xx.xxx

Than now you can reboot server

sudo reboot

Change root password

sudo -i

passwd

exit

GRUB

Change GRUB timeout

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Setting it to 0 means GRUB will boot immediately without showing the menu unless you press a key.

-GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
+GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

/etc/default/grub

If you want the menu hidden by default but accessible if you hold Shift or Esc during boot, you can set it to hidden:

-GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
+GRUB_TIMEOUT=hidden

/etc/default/grub

Update GRUB configuration after making changes:

sudo update-grub

And reboot the server to apply the changes:

sudo reboot now