Putty is a free and open-source terminal emulator and telnet client for Windows. It helps to connect a remote UNIX/Linux server from the Windows client. Primary it is used on the Windows operating system. It supports network protocols like SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection.
Below are some of the key features of Putty,
- Open source available with source code
- Lightweight and fast
- Supports Raw, Telnet, Rlogin, SSH, Serial protocol
- Putty Port for Linux and Mac is also available
- Support session logging
- Supports X11 forwarding
Install PuTTY on Ubuntu Linux
There are a total of 3 methods to install Putty. First, using the apt-get command, the second using Ubuntu software, and the last method is by compiling the source code.
We are going to use Ubuntu LTS Linux Distros. You can set up your own Linux virtual machine using VirtualBox on a Windows desktop.
So let’s get started and see installation methods one by one.
1. Install Putty on Ubuntu using commands (Terminal)
Apt-get is a versatile command available for Debian-based distros to add/remove the package. Login to the Ubuntu desktop or server. Open the terminal window and run the below commands to install Putty on Ubuntu.
1. Update the list of available packages and their versions.
$ sudo apt-get update
2. Search the putty package using the below command to check if it is available in the default repository.
$ apt-cache search putty libjsch-agent-proxy-java - Proxy to ssh-agent and Pageant in Java libtrilead-putty-extension-java - PuTTY key support for Trilead SSH2 library libtrilead-putty-extension-java-doc - Documentation for libtrilead-putty-extension-java pterm - PuTTY terminal emulator putty - Telnet/SSH client for X putty-doc - PuTTY HTML documentation putty-tools - command-line tools for SSH, SCP, and SFTP
It lists all the packages related to putty as shown below
- putty – Telnet/SSH client for X
- putty-doc – PuTTY HTML documentation
- putty-tools – command-line tools for SSH, SCP, and SFTP
3. Install the putty package with the command.
$ sudo apt-get install putty
You can also install supporting packages using the command given below.
$ sudo apt-get install putty-doc $ sudo apt-get install putty-tools
4. Now installation is complete. Run the below command to launch it.
$ putty
It opens the window as shown below. It is similar to the Windows platform except for color and theme.
If you are not conformable running the Unix command, you can use Ubuntu Software – Application package manager.
2. Using Ubuntu Software manager to Install Putty
This is a graphical installation using the built-in application package manager. Click on Show Application -> Ubuntu Software and search for putty. Click the Install button.
You need Sudo access to install the package. Enter password.
Post-installation you can launch it using the launch button. If you want to remove Putty, you can click the Remove button.
Alternatively, you can download the Putty Unix source code archive and compile it.
3. Compiling Putty source code archive
This method is for Unix Geeks. Putty provides source code that you can compile.
1. Download the source code archive using wget command or click here to download.
$ wget https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/putty-0.70.tar.gz
This downloads putty-0.70.tar.gz to the Unix box.
2. Extract using the tar command. This extract all files in the putty-0.70 folder.
$ tar xvzf putty-0.70.tar.gz
3. Navigate to it using the cd command.
$ cd putty-0.70
4. Run the ./configure command.
$ ./configure
This checks all the dependencies like C compiler, GTK, etc, and creates a makefile. You need GTK to install the graphical interface. If you don’t have GTK, you should still be able to build the command-line utilities (PSCP, PSFTP, Plink, PuTTYgen) using this script.
5. Run the make command to create the tool.
$ make
That’s it and you successfully compiled Putty source archive code.
6. Move generated tools to /usr/bin/ directory
$ sudo cp putty /usr/bin/
7. Launch putty.
$ putty
You should see the putty window as shown below.
Conclusion
Redhat, Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora, or any Linux distros come with a built-in terminal editor and Open SSH. So, there is no need to install Putty. But recently you moved from Windows to Linux and missing putty or are interested to try it on Linux then we have covered you here.
We covered all the methods to install putty on Ubuntu. If you face any errors while compiling the code, do let me know in the comments section below.
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