How to mount an SSH filesystem on Mac OS X Lion

Recently for a school project, I was required to work on my school’s lab computers because my program had to run in their unique network environment.

There were two problems with this. First, the school’s computers are unbearably slow and their keyboards are those big Dell ones that are impossible to type quickly on. Secondly, It’s a huge waste of time to trek into school just to do some coding, when I could spend my commute time actually getting work done at home.

The only access I have to the school computers is through SSH. Since Mac OS X Lion came out, support for SSH filesystems has been somewhat lacking and I could not find any decent instructions on how to get it to work. I have taken the time to figure out how to do it, and I would like to share it with you below.

There are two programs that you will need: OSX Fuse and Macfusion. Follow these instructions:

1. Downlaod OSX Fuse  at http://osxfuse.github.com/. OSX Fuse is the successor to macfuse, which is no longer being maintained.

2. When installing OSX Fuse, make sure you select the MacFUSE Compatibility Layer option. This is important because macfusion relies on it. This is the main gotcha of the whole process. It took me a few tries to find this out. Once OSX Fuse is installed, you will not need to touch it again. It is just a dependency for Macfusion.

3.  Download and install Macfusion app from http://macfusionapp.org/ .

4. Launch Macfusion app. In the bottom left-hand corner, there is a plus button that has options to mount SSHFS and FTPFS drives.

5. Have fun working from home!