SSH not enabled and ctrl+alt+f1 not working

Anthias
1

Hi,
I’ve been using screenly ose for years with no problem.
Now I’m testing the new version Anthias.
I’ve been trying the installation through balenaEtcher and Raspberry PI Imager on Raspberry 3+.
It works fine, I can access the web interface, I can publish assetts but…
I cannot access via ssh and I cannot access via keyboard neither.
I wish I could anable ufw to give a little more security…
Where am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Cesare

2

did you create the blank ssh file on your /boot/ partition of the SD card?
ctrl+alt+f1 works just fine on a recently installed anthias Pi, if you dont log in within the time for the next asset though it will go back to showing the assets and leave console.
are you 100% using the non balena version?

3

I’m pretty sure. I’ve downloaded the img file from https://github.com/Screenly/Anthias/releases/download/v0.18.5/2022-12-12-raspberrypi3.zip
I’ve also tried to create the boot/ssh file but no luck since now…
I’ve added the default assets, it shows them, but if I use ctrl+alt+f1 just turns black with no input available… is there any other trick? can I edit some conf file on the sd so I can turn on also the wifi? At the moment seems not working, but it runs with the wire.
thankx

4

instead of using that image, i suggest you follow the instructions i’ve given to everyone else when there is some issue with the images, simply download the raspi OS lite directly from raspberrypi.org and flash that image using balenaEtcher into your SD card, when it is done craete the blank ssh.txt file in the /boot/ partition, that would enable ssh upon boot.

Here is a copy of the installation instructions i have given to others:

5

Great, thank you for the support.
I’ve successfully got it running fine.
Thank you again.

6

Bringing this one up to date, because the instructions above are from 2023 and this thread still comes up when people search for how to get SSH working.

First, check which image you are running

If you flashed Anthias from the Raspberry Pi Imager list, or from one of our release disk images, there is no SSH on it and no way to switch it on. Those are balenaOS images that join the fleet we run, so none of the steps below apply to them. There is a fuller explanation in Enable SSH on Anthias using disk image.

If you want SSH, use the other route: write Raspberry Pi OS Lite yourself and run the Anthias installer on top of it. That is what the rest of this post covers.

Enabling SSH when you write the card

The blank ssh file mentioned earlier in this thread does still work, but on current Raspberry Pi OS it is no longer enough on its own. There is no default pi user any more, so switching SSH on without also creating a user leaves you with no account to log in as. That is very likely what went wrong for anyone following the old advice recently.

The easy way, in Raspberry Pi Imager:

  1. Pick your Raspberry Pi model, then Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) under Raspberry Pi OS (other), then your SD card.
  2. Open the Customisation tab.
  3. Under User, set a username and password. This part is required, and it is the account you will log in with.
  4. Under Remote Access, turn on Enable SSH. Choose password authentication, or public key if you prefer keys.
  5. Write the card.

On older versions of the Imager the same settings sit behind a gear icon or an Edit Settings button, under General and Services.

Boot the Pi and ssh yourname@your-pi works straight away.

If you have already written the card

No need to start over. Put the card back in your computer and, on the small bootfs partition:

  • create an empty file named ssh, with no file extension
  • create a file named userconf.txt holding a single line, yourname:encryptedpassword

Generate that encrypted password with:

openssl passwd -6

Then install Anthias

bash <(curl -sL https://install-anthias.srly.io)

The full walkthrough is in the install guide.