GNS3 – How to configure putty for console access
If there’s something that I find really annoying about GNS3 under Linux is the fact it uses, by default, the *cough* ugly *cough* xterm application for the console access to the virtual routers, aesthetic problems apart there is another little annoyance about this, Fedora 10 does not install xterm by default so you have to install manually.
In the, fantastic, GNS3 basic tutorial the author explained how to configure the program Konsole for err… console access (no that’s not a typo) but I don’t use KDE as my desktop manager and my distro it’s not Ubuntu (eeek) so I don’t know how Fedora named the package, forget about it I’m not gonna install KDE just to have a fancy looking Console.
In this post I’ll show you how to setup putty, the nice and tiny ssh/telnet client, for console access on your linux box, yes finally you can trash that *ugly* xterm!
First of all open up GNS3 and access the Edit –> Preferences menu :
Now simply anything eventually in the "Terminal Command" box and replace it with :
/usr/bin/putty -fg green -bg black -telnet %h %p
Congratulations now you’ll have a fully featured, and very very professional!, putty console access with Green characters on black screen like the one I’m using :
Nice motd eh :) Well that’s all folks you finally have a really professional putty console access!
***UPDATE*** I’m sure you’ve figured out this yourself but just in case, in Windows environment Putty is the default console access program all you have to do is to download putty (), copy it somewhere and tell GNS3 where it is. I don’t use Windows much so I could be wrong but I’ve noticed the Windows version of Putty does not support the –fg and –bg switches to set foreground and background colours so you’ll have to setup putty manually. Again I don’t use Windows so if you know how to do that drop me a line I’ll be glad to update the post .
Thanks for reading this, until next. Lethe.
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Hi! Thanks for the putty tip! love it very much. Unfortunately it immediately closes when I open it up and does not give me console access to my router in GNS3. Neither xterm or gnome-terminal would come up either. I ended up installing Konsole and it gave me the error “connection closed by foreign host.” Do you have any ideas why this could be happening? I really appreciate your help!
-Egui
Hi Egui.
sorry for the delay in answer but I’ve been really in bad times with real life and had to fully concentrate on some important matters.
As per your problem it is really wierd, what I would check is in GNS3 it is using the right port for Console access (don’t have GNS3 with me at the moment but it should be something like 2001) and that no firewall or anything is blocking that. What you could try is to manually start putty selecting “Close windows – Never” option in the main page and then try connecting to the router and see if you can see any error or anything…
Plesae feel free to write me or comment again if I can be of any further assistance.
Lethe.
Hi,
I am using Fedora 11 with gns3, i could not use putty instead of xterm for console access and i followed your tutorial also but i cannot and i coppied putty.exe in /usr/bin location and pasted this line in the gns3–> preferences
/usr/bin/putty -fg green -bg black -telnet %h %p. But i cannot work using putty in fedora 11 for console access please help me
Hi there, I’ve just tested this now (last time I did was under Fedora 10) and can confirm it works like described, the only thing I’ve noticed you say you’ve copied putty.exe in the /usr/bin directory, don’t do that install putty via yum as there is a Linux version available (even if it is seldom used cause Linux has its own telnet/ssh client) which works with tutorial in this post. Just issue the shell command :
yum install -y putty
And follow the tutorial as you’ve already done, let me know if you need further help.
Lethe.
Hi Lethe
Thanks for your support i used this commandyum install -y putty which u have mentioned and everything is working fine now. Thanks a lot
I’m glad everything is ok now, enjoy your lab and happy studying! :D
Come back any time you need support, cheer Lethe.
This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
Hello,
thanks for your comment which I really appreciated! Sorry if it did not appear immediatly but my antispam marked it (don’t know why) as spam so I had to approve it manually, I’ve been a lot offline but now I’m back and I’ll start again blogging but please feel free to comment or write me directly for any problem and/or further information!
Cheer Lethe.