ubuntuone-users team mailing list archive

[Steve Alexander <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Nitesh,

This is a great question.  I'll try to answer it as fully as I can.

Nitesh Mistry wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have created a live-cd of Kubuntu 9.04 which i use in persistent mode.
> What I want to know is how does Ubuntu One recognise the computers added 
> to the service. Even if I use the live-usb on different computers, will 
> it detect it as one computer?
> Hope I am clear in my query.

Although we talk about computers being added to the service, what we 
really mean is accounts on a computer being set up to talk to the service.

So, I have an account called 'steve' on my desktop computer, and that 
account is registered with Ubuntu One.

I can look at this using the "Passwords and Encryption Keys" program, 
which is in this menu:

Applications -> Accessories -> Passwords and Encryption Keys

If I look under the "Passwords" tab and expand the "Passwords: login" 
part of the table, I can see a row that says

  UbuntuOne token for https://ubuntuone.com

Right-clicking on that, and choosing "propertise", I can see the key. 
It's even possible to see the actual password.  Mine is:

  oauth_token_secret=pHxxxxxxx...&oauth_token=XhXxxxxx...

This token is what registers my account on this computer with Ubuntu 
One.  I also have a laptop computer, and that's registered with Ubuntu 
One too, but with a different token.

If a friend also had an account on my laptop, she'd have a different 
token from me.  So, effectively, my laptop would be registered to two 
people who use Ubuntu One.

When you use a live cd, or a live usb image, that's like a 
freshly-installed operating system, with a brand new user account. 
Then, when you persist the user account, the Ubuntu One token for that 
user account will be persisted too.  So, as far as Ubuntu One knows, 
wherever you use that live usb image with the same persisted user 
account, it will be the same "computer", because it has the same token.

-- Steve