[ this entry will be updated as I think of more stuff to add ]
ssh & X forwarding
For a while I was having issues with ssh X forwarding to my vserver. Finally found the problem. The problem is actually with X authentication against localhost, and setting localhost to the IP address of the machine in /etc/hosts solved that.
Also someone recommended putting "X11UseLocalhost no" in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
raw access to block devices