Connecting to Linux from MacOS

Following up on my post from last week, I decided to install Linux on an old 2016 MacBook that was just gathering dust. I installed Ubuntu 24.04 and went through the Omakub installer.

This post will just be a short note-to-self on how to rsync stuff from MacOS to Linux and the other way around locally on my two machines.

Linux to Mac:

Currently on macOS Sonoma (14.6.1)

I needed to go to System settings -> General -> Sharing -> External login and turn this on.

To find the local hostname, you see it in the bottom of the "Sharing" tab. Here it can also be changed if one wants to.

Mac to Linux (Ubuntu 24.04):

You can find your host name by going to Settings -> System -> Secure Shell.

Here one can also flip the light switch to turn it on, but somehow that kept flipping back off after closing settings for me each time.

To actually be able to connect to the Linux from my mac, I needed to install opens-client and openssh-server on it. Running the following did the trick:

sudo apt-get install openssh-client openssh-server

Conclusion

Now I can run this command in either direction to quickly connect to the other machine.

ssh username@hostname

Of course from here on it's easy to go further and rsync content back and forth, create aliases etc.

Btw. Derek Sivers recently wrote a small guide on how he syncs his stuff back and forth between a Linux and Mac. He also has a very good article on tech independence.