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{ 2007 09 01 }

Replacing dropbear with openssh

I prefer to use OpenSSH rather than Dropbear on my devices.  The main reason is to get sftp support (which is required by sshfs).  Another reason is to get better support for agent forwarding (which is essential for bouncing from one machine to another without leaving your private keys all over the internet).

To do this on OpenMoko (or any other OpenEmbedded-based distribution for that matter, for instance SlugOS or Angstrom):

  1. Edit /etc/init.d/dropbear by replacing “DROPBEAR_PORT=22” with “DROPBEAR_PORT=2222” (or any other unused port).
  2. Run “ipkg install -force-depends openssh” to install openssh.
  3. Make sure you have set a root password before rebooting (use “passwd” to set it).
  4. Reboot (dropbear will restart on the new port, and openssh will start on the normal ssh port).
  5. Check that openssh is now serving on port 22 by logging into the device over ssh.
  6. Run “ipkg remove -force-depends dropbear” to remove dropbear.
  7. Then run “ipkg install openssh-sftp” to install support for the sftp protocol which sshfs uses.

Posted by Rod Whitby on Saturday, September 1, 2007, at 3:27 pm. Filed under NSLU2-Linux, OpenMoko. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.