Linux Mint: expired?

[Fred]

randyoo,

Well, the software certainly didn't expire, so I am at a loss to say what the problem might be. We will need more information than that.

Sorry,

Fred

[shane]

As an after thought... whenever I intend to help/support someone remotely, I always tell them to install open ssh... then an IP address, username and password is usually enough to get CLI access... some need router configuration... it helps *a lot*.

Expired? only after hell freezes over... the things most people have come to expect from their computers... sad.

[psych1610]

As an after thought... whenever I intend to help/support someone remotely, I always tell them to install open ssh... then an IP address, username and password is usually enough to get CLI access... some need router configuration... it helps *a lot*.

Expired? only after hell freezes over... the things most people have come to expect from their computers... sad.

Indeed. If you assign a static IP address (and forward the ports if behind a router) temporarily you can use the remote desktop feature to actually view their desktop and they can direct you to what the problem is exactly, just in case the command line isn't enough to figure it out. You don't have to make a new user account for this either. Perhaps they had a piece of proprietary software (like something running in Wine?) that is expired?

[shane]

saying that the Mint machine isn't working because the software expired.

This is what needs clarifying... what do they mean by isn't working... what exactly do they expect to happen and what is actually happening... Then, what made them say that the software has expired? Was there a dialog? or did something just not work... There are too many possible ramifications of this scenario to give any real help.

If you need GUI access, Felicia comes with Vinagre that allows remote desktop viewing. It is easy to setup also. As for dynamic IPs, 'sudo ifconfig' in terminal will give you the info you need.Configuring the router... well that depends on the router.

[shane]

Hm... the only thing that I can think of that would expire is the user password. The system can be setup so that the user is forced to changed the password after a certain period. But that is not the default setup for Mint or Ubuntu. I can't think of anything else. The fsck problem seems too serious a bug to not have been fixed... then again, there are tons of those in Ubuntu.