How to get SSH access to headless Raspbian Stretch Lite? Official way seems not to work

Question

I was not able to enable ssh by putting the file into the boot folder, and yes it was created without extension from a Windows 7 machine and gets deleted after boot.

This is what should have happened:

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.

(Source)

I don't want to go for Keyboard & Monitor as I can get the IP assigned to Respberry Pi 3 when I connect with ethernet and can also ping with 0% lost.

After looking for an answer I got to know that the ssh is not enabled and that's the reason putty returns Connection refused on every attempt.

Now I see there is cmdline.txt in the boot folder is it something that runs on every boot? Can I use to enable ssh? If yes, how to do it?

Here are all the details, let me know if something else is required.

• My System: Windows 7 Update 1
• Raspberry model: Raspberry Pi 3 B
• Raspberry OS: Raspbian Stretch Lite
• Monitor: No
• Keyboard: No
• Ping Request: responded with no packet loss
• Connection Type: Ethernet
• SSH: not enabled (How to?)

EDIT: Now i am able to mount the 'rootfs' to my windows 7 machine with Paragon ExtFS for Windows, but don't know how to enable ssh yet, any help is appreciated

Answer 1

Finally i was able to find an alternate way to enable ssh. I will try to summarize it here. I tried PiBakery also but it was too heavy with nodejs and keeps on crashing in every attempt.

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The problem: Ext4 format is not readable form windows

So once you burn Raspbian through any img burning tool it creates two partition Boot & rootfs. The boot partition is formatted in FAT and will be only visible to windows whereas the rootfs was with Ext4 and will not be visible at all (you can confirm it by viewing it in MiniTool partition Partition Wizard)

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Mission: Editing the configuration from windows to force enable ssh

My mission was to force enable ssh as it was not working with the official instructions (putting ssh file in the boot partition). So I downloaded the Paragon ExtFS for Windows which enables Windows 7 to browse/edit files in Ext4partition by mounting it as new drive.

Before that i also tried Ext2Fsd-0.69 but it was not compatible with Windows 7 and the other ext2explore-2.2.71 is only capable to view files not to edit them. Nothing worked for me

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The hack: Edit /etc/rc.local file from windows 7

After googling for almost the whole day i got to know two thing

1. Commands can be executed by editing the file /etc/rc.local in the rootfs partition
2. Command to start ssh is /etc/init.d/ssh start

So i edited the rc.local file by placing the /etc/init.d/ssh start just before the exit 0 so that it executes on every boot, as follows

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

/etc/init.d/ssh start
exit 0

And it worked!! I know it's not a neat way but it can be helpful for someone in need. I must thank @KamilMaciorowski for his kind help & edits.

Please comment below if you see any issue that may arise because of it.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem. I had several Raspberry Pi's that I was reimaging after I plugged the first one in I realized I forgot to set it up properly. I then made changes to all of the SD Cards. The first Raspberry Pi did not work, but all of the other ones did. I had to reimage the SD Card, insert the ssh file, and then it worked.

You have to create the ssh file before the first boot. If you boot the SD Card once and it isn't customized, it will not work as expected.

• Image the SD Card
• Make the necessary changes
• Then first boot

Answer 3

Sounds like you weren't working with a fresh copy of Raspbian because the official method only works the first time you boot up a fresh copy of Raspbian. After that, you have to image the card again.

Headless Raspbian Setup with Windows 10

1. Start with a fresh copy of Raspbian on your SD card using any standard method. If you already used the card in a Raspberry Pi, you will need to start from the beginning. When you finish, look for an external device with the label "boot." This is your Raspberry Pi boot partition.
2. If you cannot see your boot partition in File Explorer, you might have to assign it a drive letter. One way to do this in Windows 10 is to right-click the Start menu and click "Disk Management." This will show all the partitions on your computer. Find one labeled "boot". Right-click the partition and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." Click "Add..." on the next dialog box and accept the default (or change it to an unused letter). After you accept those changes, you should be able to see the boot partition in File Explorer and continue on with the other instructions.

3. Optional: Set your Raspberry Pi to connect to your WiFi network by creating a plain text file called wpa_supplicant.conf in the boot partition with your WiFi network preferences as described here. Replace YourNetworkSSID and Your Network's Passphrase in the example below:

   country=US
   ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
   update_config=1
   
   network={
     ssid="YourNetworkSSID"
     psk="Your Network's Passphrase"
     key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
   }
   

4. Optional: Enable the SSH server by creating a file called ssh in the boot partition with no file extension. You can do that by right clicking inside the boot partition and selecting "New" then "Text Document." Use ctrl-a to select the whole file name (including the .txt) and rename it to ssh. Windows will warn you that you might be making the file unusable. That's okay.
5. Optional only for Raspberry Pi Zero: Setup your Raspberry Pi Zero as a USB Ethernet Gadget so you can connect the micro USB port to your computer's USB port and connect to it directly as described here. Find the file called config.txt in your boot partition and edit it in Notepad (or another editor). Put dtoverlay=dwc2 at the end of the file on its own line, save and close the file. File the file called cmdline.txt in your boot partition and edit it in Notepad (or another editor). Find the word "rootwait" in that file and put another space right after it followed by modules-load=dwc2,g_ether. There should be only one line with text in that file. Don't break new lines.
6. You might find it easier to determine the Raspberry Pi's IP address after you turn it on if you install Apple's Bonjour Print Services on your Windows machine. You can find it here or just google for it if the link dies.
7. Eject the SD card from your computer and put it in the Raspberry Pi. If you followed step 5 above, you can connect the Raspberry Pi directly to your computer's USB port. If you followed steps 4 and 6, you should be able to ssh to the address raspberrypi.local which was assigned by Apple's Bonjour Print Services. Otherwise, power it up as you would normally and connect via Ethernet or WiFi or however you were planning on doing it.

Enjoy!