Newbie question - ssh and/or keyboard connection

#1

So I’m brand new to the world of SBC. I’m a software developer, worked on all the OS’s but I like code not all this technical stuff. The board is a radxa zero 1.51

I have a zero with no EMMC - I managed to flash a SDcard with the Ubuntu version from the official list. I plugged in a HDMI and I can see that’s booted and waiting for me to login.

radxa-zero login: _
Shows me the ubuntu version

Now for the stupid questions…

  1. how do I connect a keyboard and mouse to it?
  • I thought seeing as I couldn’t figure out how to do that (my keyboard and mouse are normal usb connectors). I would run it headless and ssh.
  • I ran angryIP to look for the IP Address, none of the ip’s work. 2 of them let put a password in but then said access denied.
  • I logged into my wifi and looked at the client list. I tried ssh rock@ipaddress - I either got connection refused or connection timeout for everything on the list. I did this when I could see that it was waiting for me to login. It does seem to crash but that’s usually when I touch the cable or something.
  1. So question 2 - is how on earth do I ssh into this thing.
#2

For keyboard and mouse, the instruction suggests using an USB C hub then plug the keyboard and mouse to the hub. I use a combo keyboard plug into the board through an USB Type A to Type C converter.

#3

Ok, I don’t have a usb-a to usb-c adapter. How do I enable ssh?

I flashed it with Ubuntu focal from Radxa

I assume I need to edit the uenv.txt file - it looks like this:
verbosity=7
console=ttyAML0,115200
overlay_prefix=meson
rootfstype=ext4
fdtfile=amlogic/meson-g12a-radxa-zero.dtb
overlays=meson-g12a-uart-ao-a-on-gpioao-0-gpioao-1
rootuuid=a1d6d1b5-7219-4126-8ecd-e5cf6265cfc6
initrdsize=0xfc6a47
kernelversion=5.10.69-12-amlogic-g98700611d064
initrdimg=initrd.img-5.10.69-12-amlogic-g98700611d064
kernelimg=vmlinuz-5.10.69-12-amlogic-g98700611d064

#4

Is this helpful? https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-enable-ssh-on-ubuntu-20-04/

#5

I couldn’t find a way to do it without either having a linux machine or buying an adapter/usb-c hub. I did find instructions for doing it with dietpi - but that version isn’t around anymore - it’s all done in one linux folder, so I’d need a linux box.

I ended up paying a fortune for a usb-a to usb-c cable for like a minutes worth of work to set up ssh on it. Very annoying!