Aura H2O Yet another telnet/sshd & misc tools package...

[iandol]

OK, here were the steps I needed to get key-only ssh access to work:

1. on my computer generate a simple key-pair:

   ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/kobo

   the default settings work for dropbear ok...
2. The contents of the public key must be copied into a single line of the file:

   /usr/local/niluje/usbnet/etc/authorized_keys

   ... this didn't exist so I had to make (touch) the file first then edit it, I used nano to copy and paste from the output of

   cat ~/.ssh/kobo.pub

   from my computer. This file should contain your public key contents on a single line.
3. Then I needed to edit:

   nano /usr/local/stuff/bin/stuff-daemons.sh

   and uncomment the line

    SSHD_OPTS="${SSHD_OPTS} -s"

   and I also commented out line

   #SSHD_OPTS="${SSHD_OPTS} -n"

4. I didn't need telnet, and to disable it you have to make a file in a folder:

   touch /usr/local/niluje/usbnet/etc/NO_TELNET

5. Reboot the device.
6. To use this key:

   ssh -i ~/.ssh/kobo root@my.ip.add

[visionary]

Hi all,

I am trying to put together something similar to this project:
https://github.com/Mavireck/Kobo-Dashboard

In the code, there is a script that turns off a bunch of Kobo processes:

# Stop kobo software because it's running
killall nickel hindenburg sickel fickel fmon > /dev/null 2>&1

Could someone elaborate what each of these processes does? From some searches I've come up with the following:

• Nickel - default ebook manager and reader
• Hindenburg - ?
• Sickel - watchdog process? (https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/20...booting-issue/)
• Fickel - daemon process that dispatches events from iwlib to a named pipe that the KoboWireless Reader listens on.
• Fmon - A daemon for launching programs on the Kobo e-readers.

What I'm really interested in figuring out is how to disable the default home page on the Kobo, and to stop the clock from being updated.

Thanks in advance.

[NiLuJe]

Hindenburg is the crash handler (for... obvious reasons ^^) .

Fickel is barely used anymore.

The basic idea is that if you want to kill nickel, you *have* to kill the full set of *el daemons + hindenburg to avoid sickel throwing a tantrum .

(PS: The canonical source for that list is the KOReader startup script, as how the environment of whatever kills nickel is set dictates whether you'll be able to restart it sanely without having to reboot).

[visionary]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Hindenburg is the crash handler (for... obvious reasons ^^) .

Fickel is barely used anymore.

The basic idea is that if you want to kill nickel, you *have* to kill the full set of *el daemons + hindenburg to avoid sickel throwing a tantrum .

(PS: The canonical source for that list is the KOReader startup script, as how the environment of whatever kills nickel is set dictates whether you'll be able to restart it sanely without having to reboot).

Lol...I guess I should have figured out hindenburg

Perfect thanks for the info, especially the list of processes to bring down with nickel.

[Aaron2222]

Originally Posted by iandol

OK, here were the steps I needed to get key-only ssh access to work:

1. on my computer generate a simple key-pair:

   ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/kobo

   the default settings work for dropbear ok...
2. The contents of the public key must be copied into a single line of the file:

   /usr/local/niluje/usbnet/etc/authorized_keys

   ... this didn't exist so I had to make (touch) the file first then edit it, I used nano to copy and paste from the output of

   cat ~/.ssh/kobo.pub

   from my computer. This file should contain your public key contents on a single line.
3. Then I needed to edit:

   nano /usr/local/stuff/bin/stuff-daemons.sh

   and uncomment the line

    SSHD_OPTS="${SSHD_OPTS} -s"

   and I also commented out line

   #SSHD_OPTS="${SSHD_OPTS} -n"

4. I didn't need telnet, and to disable it you have to make a file in a folder:

   touch /usr/local/niluje/usbnet/etc/NO_TELNET

5. Reboot the device.
6. To use this key:

   ssh -i ~/.ssh/kobo root@my.ip.add

I also ended up doing the same. Though given /usr/local/stuff/bin/stuff-daemons.sh has been modified, would those changes get overridden on an update with update-kobostuff?

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by Aaron2222

Though given /usr/local/stuff/bin/stuff-daemons.sh has been modified, would those changes get overridden on an update with update-kobostuff?

They will, yeah.

(Hopefully, said update will come Soon(TM)).

[Scrath]

Hey,
sorry if this is kind of a stupid question but how I would I go about password protecting the root SSH access?

I tried logging in as the root user and setting a password for that user using the passwd command but either the password wasn't set for some reason or it isn't checked when logging in over SSH because I can still connect without a password.

There is a second user called admin but I was kind of scared about just changing random user passwords around because I don't know if that could end up with my reader bricked.

On an unrelated sidenote I can confirm for any potential future readers that these tools still seem to work on a Kobo Clara 2E.

[NiLuJe]

@Scrath:

c.f., the comments around `SSHD_OPTS` in `/usr/local/stuff/bin/stuff-daemons.sh`

You might also want to disable telnet, which is also patched for passwordless logins.