This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title : Where is dropbearconvert on Ubuntu?
Author : Remy van Elst
Date : 02-04-2019
URL : https://raymii.org/s/snippets/Where_is_dropbearconvert_on_ubuntu.html
Format : Markdown/HTML
---
Dropbear is a lightweight SSH server and client implementation, often used on
embedded systems and routers. If you use the [dropbear SSH client (dbclient)][1]
and want to use a private key, it needs to be in the dropbear format and cannot
have a passphrase. Dropbear provides a conversion utility to convert openssh
style keys to dropbear style keys, dropbearconvert, but on Ubuntu it's not in
your $PATH. This means you have to provide the full path to execute it, which is
cumbersome. There is a [bug in Ubuntu][2] that has been reported in 2012, but in
Ubuntu 18.04 (2019) it's still not fixed.
This is the full path to dropbearconvert:
/usr/lib/dropbear/dropbearconvert
This is an example to convert an OpenSSH style private key to a dropbear style
private key:
usr/lib/dropbear/dropbearconvert openssh dropbear ~/.ssh/id_rsa ~/.ssh/id_rsa_dropbear
Your dropear style private key will be located in `~/.ssh/id_rsa
~/.ssh/id_rsa_dropbear`.
Do note that your private key cannot be protected with a passphrase. Dropbear
does not support this.
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[1]: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/dbclient.1.html
[2]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dropbear/+bug/1009868
[3]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212
---
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