kobo-ssh

This repository contains the tools needed to compile dropbear and sftp-server for the arm-kobo-linux-gnueabihf system (all recent Kobo products). This binary is used for root shell access on Kobo devices which, in my case, is used to deploy and debug software on e-readers. As of now, these binaries have been tested on a Kobo Libra H2o and a Kobo Libra 2.

Features:

• Recent Dropbear version
• scp to the SSH server works
• Host keys will be generated automatically as required.

Compiling locally

This project can be compiled locally by running the compile.sh script. This requires Docker or a compatible container engine to be installed.

./compile.sh

This will compile all the required binaries and generate a dist/KoboRoot.tgz file.

Prebuilt binaries

A prebuilt KoboRoot.tgz can be found on the releases page.

Kobo setup

Once you have generated the KoboRoot.tgz file you can transfer this to your Kobo device by connecting the device to your computer and placing the file in the .kobo folder on the exposed drive.

Finally, disconnect the device from your computer and wait for it to restart. Once the restart is complete you should have a working SSH server.

Credits

Many thanks to the following for their original work on this subject:

• https://github.com/Ewpratten/KoboSSH
• https://github.com/obynio/kobopatch-ssh