Setting up kmail over ssh

******** locla host shell ********
local host:

for ssh using protocoll 1
ssh-keygen will create a public/private rsa1 key pair

for ssh using protocoll 2
ssh-keygen -t rsa will create a public/private rsa key pair
ssh-keygen -t dsa will create a public/private dsa key pair

using a passphrase is strongly recommanded, but will need some more 
changes in the KDE-Setup.

copy the file ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to your account on the remote hosts 
and add the content of this file to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys or 
authorized_keys2 depending on the version of ssh running there.
localhost
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub <user>@<remote_host>:<directory>

***********************************
setting up KDE to use ssh-agent:
a) for your account only
in ~/.xsession (on SuSe 8.0) change 
usessh="no"
to
usessh="yes"

make sure that .xsessions contains this or similar code

#
# Run ssh-agent only if ssh is configured and avaliable.
#
sshagent="no"
if test "$usessh" = "yes" -a -d $HOME/.ssh ; then
        type ssh-agent > /dev/null 2>&1 && sshagent="yes"
fi

if test -f $HOME/.xinitrc ; then
    if test "$sshagent" = "yes" ; then
        exec ssh-agent $HOME/.xinitrc
    else
        exec /bin/bash $HOME/.xinitrc
    fi
# 

create a file ~./.ssh-add.sh

---------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ]
        then
        echo '***********************'
        echo "Passphrase for identity"
        ssh-add ~/.ssh/identity
        echo "***********************"
fi
if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ]
        then
        echo "***********************"
        echo "Passphrase for rsa"
        ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
        echo "***********************"
fi
if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa ]
        then
        echo "***********************"
        echo "Passphrase for dsa"
        ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_dsa
        echo "***********************"
fi
---------------------------------------

create a desktopfile ~./kde[3]/Autostart/ssh-add to automaticaly 
start the passphrase dialog.

---------------------------------------
[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_US]=
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec='~/.ssh-add.sh'
GenericName[en_US]=
Icon=
MimeType=
Name[en_US]=Add passphrase
Path=
ServiceTypes=
SwallowExec=
SwallowTitle=
Terminal=true
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=
---------------------------------------


b) system wide

<still missing>

******* kmail local host ***********************

in  kmail - Settings - Network - Receiving account
enter the following command as precommand (all on one line) 
ssh  -v -f -L   11110:localhost:110 \ 
<remote_user_name>@<remote_hosts> sleep 10

Host = localhost
Port = 11110


******** remote host ***************************
remote host:

login to the remote host

ssh <user>@<remote_hosts>

cat identity.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
or 
cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

************************************

Restart KDE 

The passphrase will be asked

Check your mail


BTW other ssh tunnels can be established now very easily

* ssh <username>@<remote_host> opens a secure shell to the remote host
* scp <file> <username>@<remote_host>:/tmp will copy the local file to 
the /tmp directory on the remote host
* ssh  -v -f -N -L   11180:localhost:80  <username>@<remote_host> 
allows to connect to the remote http server calling 
http://localhost:11180/

End of document