You can access the command line of a Raspberry Pi remotely from another computer or device on the same network using SSH.
The Raspberry Pi will act as a remote device: you can connect to it using a client on another machine.
You only have access to the command line, not the full desktop environment. For a full remote desktop, see VNC.
1. Set up your local network and wireless connectivity
Make sure your Raspberry Pi is properly set up and connected. If you are using wireless networking, this can be enabled via the desktop's user interface, or using the command line.
If you are not using wireless connectivity, plug your Raspberry Pi directly into the router.
And the config file 'sshdconfig'. The SSH server is configured to run as a service. At the moment of this writing, it doesn't start automatically. You need to configure it manually. The Visual Studio Code Remote - SSH extension allows you to open a remote folder on any remote machine, virtual machine, or container with a running SSH server and take full advantage of VS Code's feature set. Once connected to a server, you can interact with files and folders anywhere on the remote filesystem.
You will need to note down the IP address of your Pi in order to connect to it later. Using the ifconfig command will display information about the current network status, including the IP address, or you can use hostname -I to display the IP addresses associated with the device.
2. Enable SSH
As of the November 2016 release, Raspberry Pi OS has the SSH server disabled by default. It can be enabled manually from the desktop:
- Launch
Raspberry Pi Configurationfrom thePreferencesmenu - Navigate to the
Interfacestab - Select
Enablednext toSSH - Click
OK
Alternatively, raspi-config can be used in the terminal:
- Enter
sudo raspi-configin a terminal window - Select
Interfacing Options - Navigate to and select
SSH - Choose
Yes - Select
Ok - Choose
Finish
Alternatively, use systemctl to start the service
When enabling SSH on a Pi that may be connected to the internet, you should change its default password to ensure that it remains secure. See the Security page for more details.
Ssh Server Config Linux
3. Enable SSH on a headless Raspberry Pi (add file to SD card on another machine)
For headless setup, SSH can be enabled by placing a file named ssh, without any extension, onto the boot partition of the SD card from another computer. When the Pi boots, it looks for the ssh file. If it is found, SSH is enabled and the file is deleted. The content of the file does not matter; it could contain text, or nothing at all.
If you have loaded Raspberry Pi OS onto a blank SD card, you will have two partitions. The first one, which is the smaller one, is the boot partition. Place the file into this one.
4. Set up your client
SSH is built into Linux distributions and Mac OS, and is an optional feature in Windows 10. For older Windows versions and mobile devices, third-party SSH clients are available. See the following guides for using SSH with the OS on your computer or device:
-->This topic covers the Windows-specific configuration for OpenSSH Server (sshd).
OpenSSH maintains detailed documentation for configuration options online at OpenSSH.com, which is not duplicated in this documentation set.
Configuring the default shell for OpenSSH in Windows
The default command shell provides the experience a user sees when connecting to the server using SSH.The initial default Windows is the Windows Command shell (cmd.exe).Windows also includes PowerShell and Bash, and third party command shells are also available for Windows and may be configured as the default shell for a server.
To set the default command shell, first confirm that the OpenSSH installation folder is on the system path.For Windows, the default installation folder is SystemDrive:WindowsDirectorySystem32openssh.The following commands shows the current path setting, and add the default OpenSSH installation folder to it.
| Command shell | Command to use |
|---|---|
| Command | path |
| PowerShell | $env:path |
Configuring the default ssh shell is done in the Windows registry by adding the full path to the shell executable to ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREOpenSSH in the string value DefaultShell.
As an example, the following Powershell command sets the default shell to be PowerShell.exe:
Windows Configurations in sshd_config
In Windows, sshd reads configuration data from %programdata%sshsshd_config by default, or a different configuration file may be specified by launching sshd.exe with the -f parameter.If the file is absent, sshd generates one with the default configuration when the service is started.
The elements listed below provide Windows-specific configuration possible through entries in sshd_config.There are other configuration settings possible in that are not listed here, as they are covered in detail in the online Win32 OpenSSH documentation.
AllowGroups, AllowUsers, DenyGroups, DenyUsers
Controlling which users and groups can connect to the server is done using the AllowGroups, AllowUsers, DenyGroups and DenyUsers directives.The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order: DenyUsers, AllowUsers, DenyGroups, and finally AllowGroups.All account names must be specified in lower case.See PATTERNS in ssh_config for more information on patterns for wildcards.
When configuring user/group based rules with a domain user or group, use the following format: user?domain*.Windows allows multiple of formats for specifying domain principals, but many conflict with standard Linux patterns.For that reason, * is added to cover FQDNs.Also, this approach uses '?', instead of @, to avoid conflicts with the username@host format.
Work group users/groups and internet-connected accounts are always resolved to their local account name (no domain part, similar to standard Unix names).Domain users and groups are strictly resolved to NameSamCompatible format - domain_short_nameuser_name.All user/group based configuration rules need to adhere to this format.
Examples for domain users and groups
Examples for local users and groups
AuthenticationMethods
Ssh Server Configuration
For Windows OpenSSH, the only available authentication methods are 'password' and 'publickey'.
AuthorizedKeysFile
The default is '.ssh/authorized_keys .ssh/authorized_keys2'. If the path is not absolute, it is taken relative to user's home directory (or profile image path). Ex. c:usersuser. Note that if the user belongs to the administrator group, %programdata%/ssh/administrators_authorized_keys is used instead.
ChrootDirectory (Support added in v7.7.0.0)
This directive is only supported with sftp sessions. A remote session into cmd.exe wouldn't honor this. To setup a sftp-only chroot server, set ForceCommand to internal-sftp. You may also set up scp with chroot, by implementing a custom shell that would only allow scp and sftp.
HostKey
The defaults are %programdata%/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key, %programdata%/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key, %programdata%/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key, and %programdata%/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key. If the defaults are not present, sshd automatically generates these on a service start.
Sshd Configuration
Match
Note that pattern rules in this section. User and group names should be in lower case.
PermitRootLogin
Not applicable in Windows. To prevent administrator login, use Administrators with DenyGroups directive.
SyslogFacility
If you need file based logging, use LOCAL0. Logs are generated under %programdata%sshlogs.For any other value, including the default value, AUTH directs logging to ETW. For more info, see Logging Facilities in Windows.
Not supported
Ubuntu Ssh Server Configuration
The following configuration options are not available in the OpenSSH version that ships in Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 1809:
- AcceptEnv
- AllowStreamLocalForwarding
- AuthorizedKeysCommand
- AuthorizedKeysCommandUser
- AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand
- AuthorizedPrincipalsCommandUser
- Compression
- ExposeAuthInfo
- GSSAPIAuthentication
- GSSAPICleanupCredentials
- GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck
- HostbasedAcceptedKeyTypes
- HostbasedAuthentication
- HostbasedUsesNameFromPacketOnly
- IgnoreRhosts
- IgnoreUserKnownHosts
- KbdInteractiveAuthentication
- KerberosAuthentication
- KerberosGetAFSToken
- KerberosOrLocalPasswd
- KerberosTicketCleanup
- PermitTunnel
- PermitUserEnvironment
- PermitUserRC
- PidFile
- PrintLastLog
- RDomain
- StreamLocalBindMask
- StreamLocalBindUnlink
- StrictModes
- X11DisplayOffset
- X11Forwarding
- X11UseLocalhost
- XAuthLocation