How To Install dropbear on CentOS 8

dropbear is Lightweight SSH server and client

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install dropbear on CentOS 8.

What is dropbear

Dropbear is a relatively small SSH server and client. It’s particularly useful for “embedded”-type Linux (or other Unix) systems, such as wireless routers.

We can use yum or dnf to install dropbear on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install dropbear.

Install dropbear on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install dropbear using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install dropbear

Install dropbear on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install dropbear using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install dropbear

How To Uninstall dropbear on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the dropbear package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove dropbear

dropbear Package Contents on CentOS 8

/etc/dropbear
/usr/bin/dbclient
/usr/bin/dropbearconvert
/usr/bin/dropbearkey
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/54
/usr/lib/.build-id/54/55393c3526d486d493cfd1d74cd4e491813032
/usr/lib/.build-id/5b
/usr/lib/.build-id/5b/1a1b91f26dafa6da643bdcdc94ae07d5012a2b
/usr/lib/.build-id/67
/usr/lib/.build-id/67/ad5c7c305464e392558762f36198bad48a031c
/usr/lib/.build-id/88
/usr/lib/.build-id/88/b52752a69cf5411e7f7c8cf51d686e96cd9519
/usr/lib/systemd/system/dropbear-keygen.service
/usr/lib/systemd/system/dropbear.service
/usr/sbin/dropbear
/usr/share/doc/dropbear
/usr/share/doc/dropbear/CHANGES
/usr/share/doc/dropbear/README
/usr/share/licenses/dropbear
/usr/share/licenses/dropbear/LICENSE
/usr/share/man/man1/dbclient.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/dropbearconvert.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/dropbearkey.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/dropbear.8.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install dropbear on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.