How do I enable SSH on raspbian stretch (2018-04-18) by default on boot without a monitor

Question

Background: I setup my wireless without a screen by mounting my distribution image(2018-04-18-raspbian-stretch-lite.img) according to the instructions on these links.

mounting distribution image

changing files to connect to wireless

and then using the linux dd command to put the modified image on my SD card

with Arch linux I use $ip addr to view my public ip address and $sudo nmap -sn XXX.XXX.X.XXX/XX to view connected devices on my wireless network. The raspberry pi shows up with its ip address and I have included the ssh file in the boot folder of the raspberry pi to enable ssh, but when I try to ssh into it using $ssh pi@XXX.XXX.X.XXX I get ssh: connect to host XXX.XXX.X.XXX port 22: Connection refused. I believe the problem in this latest distribution is that placing ssh into boot doesn't enable ssh anymore. A commenter called Decades references that it does not work for him either in a recent post located here. What is an alternative to placing a file named ssh into the raspberry pi boot directory that would work for enabling ssh on boot?

Note: XXX.XXX.X.XXX/XX or XXX.XXX.X.XXX represents an ip address.

edit: the issue was that I placed ssh in the boot directory not the boot partition. ssh now works fine.

Please edit your question and copy the contents of your `wpa_supplicant.conf` to it and also give us the output from `ssh -vv pi@>ip addr<` — Ingo, May 18 '18 at 23:36
Add `country=GB` (replace it with your country code) into your `wpa_supplicant.conf` on SD card in addition to the network SSID and password setup. You don't necessary to log in using IP address, if everything working, you can just log in using `ssh pi@raspberrypi.local`. — hcheung, May 19 '18 at 02:38
@Ingo the contents of wpa_supplicant aren't relevant to the question. I am able to connect the raspberry pi to wifi but am having trouble with ssh. I already have given you the output of my attempted ssh connection. The computer was able to contact the device, but because ssh is disabled on boot it refused the connection. — A.B., May 19 '18 at 03:00
`I believe the problem in this latest distribution is that placing ssh into boot doesn't enable ssh anymore` - the thing is `/boot/ssh` is removed on boot - however, ssh is enabled - if there's a reboot, and you do not configure ssh to be enabled, the next boot results in ssh being not available. One thing a pi does on first boot is extend the root partition ... and then reboot - so, perhaps you simply need to put `/boot/ssh` back on the sd card — Jaromanda X, May 19 '18 at 03:06
I just realised a little confusion in the above. ssh is enabled by adding `/boot/ssh` - which you know - but it is temporary (until the next boot) unless you enable it "permanently" (using raspi-config is the easiest way) - and I'm fairly sure the first boot of a raspbian image results in at least one reboot — Jaromanda X, May 19 '18 at 03:13
@JaromandaX I think you are correct. It looks like I need to find a monitor to enable ssh permanently and then I won't need one. Alternatively, a solution could be to use a different linux distro that has ssh enabled by default. I will also try to edit the image on the sd card after the first boot to see if I can add ssh into the /boot directory again without a monitor. — A.B., May 19 '18 at 03:34
@hcheung adding my country to my wpa_supplicant.conf file had no effect, and ssh'ing into raspberrypi.local instead of my ip address did not work on archlinux, but I know my ip address anyways. — A.B., May 19 '18 at 03:38
or, you can simply add /boot/ssh again using the original computer you used to flash the SD - it's only the very first time you boot an image that it extends the root partition after all — Jaromanda X, May 19 '18 at 04:39
@A.B. if you have solved your problem could you please write an answer here explaining how and mark it as correct; rather than putting an answer in your question. — Darth Vader, May 30 '18 at 13:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 19 '18 at 09:21

I have just tested with a fresh flashed Raspbian Stretch Lite 2018-04-18 on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. Adding an empty file /boot/ssh will persistent enable the ssh server on the Raspberry Pi. Even after several boots I get (have a serial tty-usb console cable):

pi@raspberrypi:~$ systemctl status ssh.service
● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-04-18 01:08:39 UTC; 1 months 0 days ago
  Process: 524 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/sshd -t (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 527 (sshd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ssh.service
           └─527 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

Apr 18 01:08:39 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server...
Apr 18 01:08:39 raspberrypi sshd[527]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Apr 18 01:08:39 raspberrypi sshd[527]: Server listening on :: port 22.
Apr 18 01:08:39 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
pi@raspberrypi:~$

To enable wifi you have to add /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf on your raspi with something like:

country=DE
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="wlan@hoeft-online.de"
    psk="verySecretPassword"
}

You don't use a pi-3b+ but for the completeness for other readers: Adding the country=XX line is essential for Pi 3 B+ because without it wifi will not start. Look at release notes:

018-03-13: * Raspberry Pi 3 B+ support
* WiFi is disabled until wireless regulatory domain is set (Pi 3 B+ only) - The domain can be done through 'Raspberry Pi Configuration' (rc_gui), 'raspi-config' or by setting 'country=' to an appropriate ISO 3166 alpha2 country code in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.
* Default wireless regulatory domain is now unset

Putting it all together I have done this:

pc ~$ # on a pc with debian and mounted SD card to /dev/sdb
pc ~$ sudo -Es
pc ~# unzip -p 2018-04-18-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4M conv=fsync
pc ~# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/
pc ~# touch /mnt/ssh
pc ~# cat >/mnt/wpa_supplicant.conf <<EOF   # use your settings
country=DE
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="wlan@hoeft-online.de"
    psk="verySecretPassword"
}
EOF

pc ~# umount /mnt/
pc ~# exit
pc ~$

Put the SD card into your raspi and boot. If you do exactly the same as above you should be able to ssh into your raspi through wifi. If not the raspi isn't the reason (or it's broken). Look at your environment. Or you have done wrong settings.

edit: the issue was that I placed the ssh file in the boot directory instead of the boot partition. — A.B., May 19 '18 at 20:15

How do I enable SSH on raspbian stretch (2018-04-18) by default on boot without a monitor

1 Answers1