SSH on my iPhone - easy

23 Aug 2007

I’d been wanting to play with some of the cool iPhone hacks, but most of the tools available are for Intel Macs. For the next few months, I’m still using a G4 PowerBook, so I’d been stymied. Using Nullriver’s Installer.app, however, I’ve been able to install several apps, including a VT100 terminal and OpenSSH.

You can’t use the SSH client to do any serious work — if you switch away from the terminal app your session closes. That means if your phone rings in the midst of a session, you’re done. But for emergency use out on the road, you can’t beat an SSH client in your pocket.

Brad Choate
August 23, 2007 2:45 PM

if you switcha way from the terminal app your session closes.

I recommend using screen on the server you’re connecting to so the session is at least preserved on that end.

David Hopkins
September 14, 2007 3:59 AM

Impressive. Shame about the hang up. It certainly is a useful thing to have when your not in front of a computer.

Kai
April 9, 2008 12:27 PM

Connect and type ‘screen -S iphone’, then do your work. If you get disconnected, reconnect and type ‘screen -R iphone’ and pick up where you left off. If you are doing serious work over ANY WiFi connection and aren’t using screen, you are asking for it. My laptop has dropped connection from the WAP during various crucial tasks on my Linux server, but screen has saved me from having a mess on my hands several times.

Adam Kalsey
April 9, 2008 12:36 PM

It’s not so much having the processes keep running when I get disconnected. The thing that drags on me is the process of reconnecting. I’m hesitant to add ssh keys to my iphone. And typing complex passwords is a pain in the ass.

Sebastien
April 19, 2008 5:06 PM

I’m a big fan of the SSH function. I use it on a daily basis, mostly to change backgrounds or to upload pdf docs to my phone.

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