Remote ssh command: error 255

Configuration
1

Hi, I see I’m not alone with SSH commands not working from HA GUI but I also don’t see a working solution. Goal is to set an automation to reboot an ASUS router in the morning.

Problem: shell commands DO work from Terminal addon but DO NOT work from HA GUI or automations.

Command:
ssh [email protected] /sbin/reboot

I’m getting this:

ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.shell_command] Error running command: `ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no" [email protected] /sbin/reboot`, return code: 255
NoneType: None

RSA key pair is pasted to the router’s web admin. I understand HA and Terminal addon are probably two different users with different credentials but I don’t know how to fix it.

Tried:
ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no" [email protected] /sbin/reboot
ssh -i /data/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected] /sbin/reboot
ssh -i /data/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected] /sbin/reboot
ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected] /sbin/reboot
ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected] /sbin/reboot

Setup:
Rpi4 with HA Core 0.108.5 via Ethernet directly into router
AC-1200 router

Please advise, thanks.

2

I’ve used Shortcuts on iOS to do this as it can run remote shell commands with passwords now but I’d still like a HA solution.

3

Not what you might want to hear, but I am in the same boat here. I am attempting to reboot a remote raspberry pi with the shell commands without much success.

4

same problem here.

5

I managed to figure it all out.

First, you need to use SSH & Web Terminal which can be found on the Home Assistant Community Add-ons.
This lets you log on to the home assistant host (I think?)
Then i created the SSH keys from there and copied them onto the rasberry pi.
I then used this shell command to send commands to the pi.

picommand: ssh -i /config/ssh/id_rsa -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' [email protected] '[remote command to be run]'

I hope this helps, i should have documented what i did to get it working before i forgot. The key way to use the community SSH add on and not the official ssh add on.

2 Likes
6

I just wanted to write down the same :smiley: I solved it a 10 minutes ago. The same method I used.

1 Like
7

Been having a heck of a time with this. I’ve copied the SSH keys to my raspberry pi and can execute the command when I open the SSH & Web Terminal without any problems. However, running this from a service doesn’t do anything. It gives me a return code: 255 in the logs.

ssh_test_script: ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' [email protected] 'sh /home/scripts/testscript.sh'

Again, pasting this directly into the terminal executes with no problems.

EDIT: ok, apparently the keys HAVE to be in /config/.ssh not /root/.ssh. Copied my keys from root to config and changed the script to reflect those changes and I’m good to go.

10 Likes
8

The combination of using -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' and placing the key in /config/.ssh finally got this working for me - thanks! :slight_smile:

6 Likes
9

Highly underrated answer. Searched for a few hours and this fixed my issue!

2 Likes
10

I must be getting grey hairs on this… well more than I already have.
I had this working previously on an older version of both HA and Rasbian, but now I’m pretty much stumped. What I have done so far is:

  • generated the key on the HA
  • copied the key to the Rasbian
  • put in the shell alias to a bash .sh file
  • verified that I can connect from HA to Raspian with ssh and the key file
  • created a .ssh in /config and moved the files there, reflecting that in the script
  • set the correct rigths on the directory and the files
  • reverified in the terminal
  • made the automation
  • testfire of the automation
  • getting 255 errors along the way that I did various things

So now I have no idea anymore and the logging is not fantastic.
When I run it in the terminal, everything works fine… I’m at the end of my rope here.

shell alias:

info_on: '/config/info_on.sh'

info_on.sh:

ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no [email protected] "bash ./info_on.sh"

Any more tips?

11

Enable debug logging for shell_command and test again. It will give you more detail on what is going wrong in the system log.

Go to developer tools > services

service: logger.set_level
data:
  homeassistant.components.shell_command: debug

Make sure to reset after testing.

12

Thanks Folks … for this Solution … I was struggling with my QNAP and shell_command was not my only problem. Here the complete Solution for QNAP.

  • Qnap Version 4 (other Qnap, take a look here Running Your Own Application at Startup - QNAPedia)
  • I have admin deactivated on Qnap (Security Recommondation)
  • I use only ssl
  • all server information on HA I want to have in secrets.yaml
  • id_rsa.pub > cat file to qnap’s /share/homes/user/.ssh/authorized_keys
  • chmod folder .ssh to 0700 and authorized_keys to 0600
  • enable autorun.sh on Qnap (System Setting, Hardware)
  • edit autorun.sh

First … QNAP
Use this command for editing autorun.sh, check Qnap Wiki for Other Qnap’s then 4

mount $(/sbin/hal_app --get_boot_pd port_id=0)6 /tmp/config
vi /tmp/config/autorun.sh

Qnap autostart.sh content you need, because sudoers is not persistent

mkdir /usr/etc/sudoers.d
echo "user ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/poweroff" > /usr/etc/sudoers.d/user

after editing … to this:

chmod +x /tmp/config/autorun.sh
umount /tmp/config

Here is, what you can define for HA

configuration.yaml

shell_command:
  shutdown_lupus: !secret qnap_lupus_poweroff
sensor: !include_dir_list sensors/
switch: !include_dir_list switches/

sensors/lupus.yaml

platform: qnap
host: !secret ip_lupus
username: !secret qnap_lupus_user
password: !secret qnap_lupus_password
port: !secret qnap_lupus_port
ssl: true
verify_ssl: false
monitored_conditions:
  - status
  - cpu_usage
  - memory_percent_used
  - network_tx
  - volume_percentage_used

switches/wol_lupus.yaml

platform: wake_on_lan
name: WoL Lupus
mac: !secret qnap_lupus_macc
turn_off: 
  service: shell_command.shutdown_lupus

secrets.yaml

qnap_lupus_user: user
qnap_lupus_password: password
qnap_lupus_port: port
qnap_lupus_poweroff: ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa -p port -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user@ip "sudo /sbin/poweroff"
qnap_lupus_macc: 'mac'
13

THANK YOU SO MCUH

14

Hi every one,
I am still having problem on using shell command on my home assistant.
I have home assistant installed on proxmox with ip 10.10.10.10 on a vm 10.10.50.22.
I been able to ssh in my home assistant core :
ssh [email protected]

than i created a key with:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519

and saved in /root/config/.shh

than i copied the key to the server i want send the ssh command line:
ssh-copy-id [email protected]

the command line i saved in my home assistant config .yaml is :
ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -o ‘StrictHostKeyChecking=no’ [email protected] -i /config/.ssh/id_ed25519 ‘echo -n mem > /sys/power/state’.

I still get the error return code: 255
how can i solve ?

15

I’m not sure, but I see two -i flags in your command line. You only need the last one.

16

Thanks for the tip.
I found out that after an hour of trying to solve this problem that there was no problem.

Output of my log:

2023-08-30 21:03:45.926 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.shell_command] Stderr of command: `ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' [email protected] sudo poweroff`, return code: 255:
b'Connection to 10.0.0.58 closed by remote host.\r\n'
2023-08-30 21:03:45.927 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.shell_command] Error running command: `ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' [email protected] sudo poweroff`, return code: 255

The ssh command returns that the connection was closed as a stderr output.
So just set logger level to debug to check it and if it works then leave it.

1 Like
17

same for me problem solved trhankyou!

18

Perfect answer.
StrictHostKeyChecking=no AND key must be in /config/.ssh/. That solved it for me.
Thanks so much @mattbrad2 , even 4 years after, this is still the best answer.

19

I’m having terrible trouble with this and would love assistance if anyone could help.
Running Hassio on an intel NUC
I’m trying to shut down a readyNAS remotely.
Using the code from Terminal & SSH works fine

ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected] rnutil rn_shutdown

I’ve copied the id_rsa file cp /root/.ssh/id_rsa /config/.ssh/id_rsa
but running the shell command from HA still gives Permission denied (publickey). 255
The logs give me:
Error running command: ssh -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected] rnutil rn_shutdown, return code: 255
NoneType: None

NoneType: None being my favourite error ever

20

Are you running this as a shell_command? If so, have you tried enabling debug as I indicated in the above comment? This should provide more detail.