is there a good ssh terminal file to use with Windows 10 ssh server from ArcaOS?

[David Hart]

I have been looking for a ssh_term.os2 file to use with OpenSSH that comes with ArcaOS.

I have a Windows 10 box with 32 Gig of RAM and my collection of 70 or so VirtualBox VMs.  I am able to ssh from ArcaOS using OpenSSH to the Windows box and run some command scripts to start headless VMs and then use the ArcaOS FreeRDP client to connect to the headless VM.  This works pretty well.

One thing that is annoying is the terminal emulation isn't working well.  Is there a terminal emulation file that would allow me to clear the screen correctly and then use VIM within the SSH session?

Thanks,
Dave

[David Hart]

After doing a bit of research I found there are several ssh_term files for .bsd, .linux, .orig, .os2, .sun, .vt100 but I guess there should be one for Windows which define the terminal emulation of the server (I presume) and key mappings.  I tried doing ssh -tc <filename> user@host and then entered the password.  I can log in but when I attempt to clear the screen, the cursor jumps to the top and leaves all the text there.

I did install VIM editor which does work except for the fact that the text that was there before is still there so unreadable and I think this has to do with selecting the correct terminal emulation file.

This is still useful since I written some command scripts to start and stop Virtual Box VMs as well as checking to see if I still have any of my VMs running by typing "tasklist /fi "imagename eq VBoxHeadless.exe"  which returns with any headless VM sessions I may have running.

[Dave Yeo]

I think the problem is that our current libc is missing some terminal functions. One option is to use an older EMX based ssh client and experiment with different term or termcap files. There's some on Hobbes. How secure they are now, I have no idea.

[Andy Willis]

There is also a QT app, qputty, which is very much like putty on Windows (it lacks serial port but that is not needed for SSH anyhow).

[Neil Waldhauer]

VOICE published an article about remote administration

https://articles.os2voice.org/category/software/20-helpdesk.html

Download HelpDesk 1.0, unzip it, and the SSH included in that works pretty well.

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

ZOC has an SSH mode. But I don't know if recent encryption is supported. The app is about 20 years old, but it's still the best terminal app on OS/2.

[David Hart]

These are all great suggestions for me to investigate.  Thanks.

I have been using QPutty on my WD MyBook NAS storage device and QPutty has been working on that box.  QPutty to Windows has been giving me "expected key exchange group packet from server" and I searched on that error and the suggestion was to modify the order of the Key Exchange Algorithm selection policy" which I rearranged but that did not seem to do it.

Just for kicks, I did an SSH from my ArcaOS box to the WD NAS box and then did an SSH from the NAS to Windows.  That does let me use VIM and see what I am doing, and cls does work too.  So trying EMX SSH or figuring out how to get the keys swapped between the two might do it.

I will keep poking around and I will post what I find.

[David Hart]

Here is what I did but in QPutty it did not work.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/170327/error-expected-key-exchange-group-packet.html

[Rich Walsh]

So trying EMX SSH or figuring out how to get the keys swapped between the two might do it.

Attached is "sshinstall.zip". This is the package I used in 'HelpDesk' because it is the only standalone version of SSH - the others need 3rd-party packages installed as well. As noted, it requires EMX which you almost certainly have.