This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:

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.

 Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below: <a href="https://leafnode.nl">I'm developing an open source monitoring app called Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!</a> <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/RaymiiOrg/">Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.</a> <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212">You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days. </a> 

[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

---

License:
All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise.
This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it
the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified)
content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got
and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source.

This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for
advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you.
Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it.

All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license
unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form
of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software:

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational
purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you
screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example.
If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me.

See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.