Dropbear won't start

[elevennails]

ASUS ZenWiFi AC (CT8) running factory firmware 3.0.0.4.386_47399 Unable to use ssh.

The eventlog shows:

Jul 30 12:37:02 dropbear[11830]: Failed loading /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
Jul 30 12:37:02 dropbear[11830]: Failed loading /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
Jul 30 12:37:02 dropbear[11830]: Failed loading /etc/dropbear/dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
Jul 30 12:37:02 dropbear[11830]: Failed loading /etc/dropbear/dropbear_ed25519_host_key
If i telnet into the router i can see that /etc/dropbear has these files however they are symlinks to:


lrwxrwxrwx 1 user root 32 May 5 2018 dropbear_dss_host_key -> /jffs/.ssh/dropbear_dss_host_key
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user root 34 May 5 2018 dropbear_ecdsa_host_key -> /jffs/.ssh/dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user root 36 May 5 2018 dropbear_ed25519_host_key -> /jffs/.ssh/dropbear_ed25519_host_key
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user root 32 May 5 2018 dropbear_rsa_host_key -> /jffs/.ssh/dropbear_rsa_host_key

The /jffs/.ssh folder appears to be missing.

If i try and create the /jffs/.ssh folder it says that the file system is readonly

I've tried removing the symlinks and creating the files manually using

rm /etc/dropbear/*
dropbearkey -t rsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
dropbearkey -t dsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dsa_host_key
dropbearkey -t ecdsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
dropbearkey -t ed25519 -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_ed25519_host_key

ssh then works but i've notice that when I restart the router, the original Dropbear service symlinks come back and its all broken again.

Does anyone know how i can fix this?

Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

If i try and create the /jffs/.ssh folder it says that the file system is readonly

I don't know about the CT8 specifically but on other Asus routers the jffs partition must be writable because that's where it stores some of its configuration data as well as log files. When jffs becomes read-only that indicates that the router is in some sort of error state. If doing a power off/on doesn't fix it then I suggest you do a hard (not soft) factory reset.

[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 2 | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[elevennails]

The factory reset worked thanks.

Did a config backup -> factory reset -> and a restore

thanks for the help