Putty

Detailed Putty Terminal Settings using SSh-2, DropBear and DynDNS.

• How to configure Putty for the Dynamic DNS to the Pre, so you can connect via Wifi and have good terminal settings.

Detailed settings for Putty: v0.60

• We assume you've installed PuTTY software - if not you can get it at this link

• We assume you've already completed the Dynamic DNS Update Client install for the Pre from this wiki, so you don't have to constantly look up your Pre's IP address and can access it via WiFi.

• If you have not, on step-7 you can use the wifi IP address from the DeviceInfo screen.
  
  
  
• First, in Putty we will work from bottom to top screens, doing the "session" window as last step to save settings for reuse at later time.
  
  

Procedure

0. Run PuTTY then;

1. Expand CONNECTION in the left-hand pane by clicking on the plus (+) sign.

• Seconds between keepalives 30 --- these settings required
• Disable Nagle's algorithm - checked
• Enable TCP keepalives - checked

2. Click on (select) the word SSH and on that screen change preferred protocol version = 2. There is no need to save yet.

• Comment - This is the step that stops you from sending your password in the clear - SSH2 encrypts entire session including your logon to your Pre for safety.

3. (Optional) On the left-hand pane select "Window" and set "columns" =100 "Rows" =50 and "lines of Scrollback" = 600. Higher values give the advantage to scroll back more, at the cost of using more local WindowsXP swap file space.

4. (Optional) On the left-hand pane under WINDOW, choose APPEARANCE. Change the font to Fixedsys, 12-point.

5. On the left-hand pane under TERMINAL, choose KEYBOARD.

• Set: Backspace key to 127. --- these settings required
• Choose Function Keys VT100

6. On the left-hand pane select TERMINAL itself.

• Enable "Auto Wrap", Enable "Use Background Color", uncheck the others ("DEC", "Implicit", and "Blinking.")
• For Line Discipline options choose AUTO and again AUTO. - some have reported the Force Off works for them.

7. On the left-hand pane select SESSION.

• For the hostname - enter your DynDNS hostname you assigned during DynDNS "yourhostname.getmyip.com" for example
• For the port - choose 222

8. (Optional) under Session LOGGING you can turn logging on and give some file name.

• Recommended. This may help you when chatting in the IRC channel if you want to share your session text with others.

9. On the left-hand pane select SESSION. In "Load" box window, give some friendly name like "Palm_Pre_Dropbear" and click SAVE button.

• This is the point where it saves all of the above settings, which is why we do it last even though it's the 'first' screen when opening putty.

10. TEST by waking up your phone so it connects to wifi, and then double click on the saved session "Palm Pre Dropbear" you should be asked your password.

• If you are prompted to 'add security certificate' upon your first connection to your Pre, answer yes.
• If you get the Linux prompt then success you're in!
• Success on SSH-2 ! Jump for joy. Read tricks below on usage.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

• If it never connects, can you PING to your wifi IP or hostname? The TTL for DynDNS is 60 seconds, so after you 'wake up' your pre the IP may not be correct for one minute. Also set your Pre to the 3-minute timeout screen value so it doesn't go to sleep too quickly during testing.
• If it works good at first, but then after a minute of idle it seems to be sluggish or slow, then check the keepalives setting in above section.
  
• To keep the phone active you may use the tweak to increase idle timer on the screen and lock application's settings (i.e; Turn Off: 30 minutes.)

Connecting to EMULATOR

Once you have done the above to connect to your physical Pre, load the same settings from above, then save as a different NAME to connect to the EMULATOR. Also, you'll change the hostname and port.

• The only difference is on Step7 from above, really for the SESSION setting
  • Hostname: localhost (or use 127.0.0.1)
  • Choose ssh2 on port 5522
• And on the emulator, you don't have to install dropbear, it's there by default for you already.
• TEST by running the emulator, wait for the ready screen then SSH2 into it.
• Logon as root, password (blank, none.)

Using PuTTY - Usage Tricks.

• You can PASTE text from wiki into PuTTY: control-c to copy into your windowsXP clipboard. Then in Putty, simply RIGHT clicking does paste.
  This trick makes it super easy to use commands exactly from this wiki.
• COPY text from PuTTY: Simply select the text. The text will automatically be placed into windows clipboard
• Or you can capture all of your scrollback into your clipboard by right-clicking the blue header bar, and selecting Copy All To Clipboard option
• There is configurable logging too, if it helps you. It's off by default, but see Step8 above.
• If you make any session changes that you want to save for future connections, save again (step 9) too.

About this Wiki Putty page

Contributed by FreeTim , but feel free to append to it your own tricks.