SSH not enabled and ctrl+alt+f1 not working

Anthias
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.