Setting up dropbear - beginner's guide

[sindi keesan]

I have compiled dbclient scp dropbear dropbearkey for version 0.49, both 
dynamically against glibc 2.2.5 using gcc 2.95.3 and statically against 
uclibc 0.9.27.

I am not a computer professional and do not have and have never set up 
openssh.  I use a small slackware-based 'basiclinux' that came without 
ssh.  dbclient and scp work fine (kernel 2.4.31).  I don't have dropbear 
working.

The instructions in README say to use dropbearkey to generate rsa and dss 
keys and put them in /etc/dropbear.  Do I also need to make and put public 
keys there?  The instructions tell me only how to use dropbear -y to 
display the public part of the key on the screen.

Please could someone write a very brief instruction for beginners on how 
to set up dropbear, assuming you don't already have openssh keys, to add 
to or supplement README.

If I type dropbear (Enter) and then try to use dbclient or ssh to access 
my own computer via its IP number (from a shell account or locally using 
the loopback IP number 127.0.0.1) it won't accept my password after asking 
for it.

ssh tells me Permission denied, please try again.
dbclient just asks again for the password.

I am trying to access my own computer with dbclient (and eventually access 
it with ssh from a mac and puTTy from Windows so as to share a modem 
connection).  Do I need both private keys?

Using lynx, I cannot choose which topics to receive emails about at the 
website.

Sindi

keesan at sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org