Make Android devices part of your Linux environment

SSHelper

Apps like Mercury-SSH Commander and ConnectBot let you use an Android device as an SSH client, whereas SSHelper [7] can transform your smartphone or tablet into a fully fledged SSH server (Figure 7). This way, you can treat your Android device as a regular remote Linux host. You can access it from the terminal on your Linux machine, browse the filesystem, and transfer files. If you use a graphical file manager like Dolphin, you can use that to access and browse the filesystem on your Android device and copy files back and forth. Better still, you can use other Linux tools like rsync to perform backups.

Figure 7: SSHelper is a fully fledged SSH server for Android.

Although SSHelper offers a wide range of configuration options, deploying it on an Android device is easy. You can install the app either from the Google Play Store or download the APK file from the project's website and install it manually. Launch the app and wait until it completes the initial configuration. Then, switch to the Configuration section by tapping the wrench icon; note the IP address of the Android device. Here, you can also change the default port and password, if desired. You can leave the rest of the options at their defaults.

On your Linux machine, open the terminal, and connect to the Android device using

ssh -p 2222 user@192.168.1.154

(pick any username you want and replace 192.168.1.154 with the actual IP address of the Android device). When prompted, enter the default admin password. To access the device's file system using Dolphin enter the fish://user@192.168.1.154:2222 URL into the Location bar and hit Enter.

SSHelper has another clever trick up its sleeve: You can access the clipboard of the Android device on port 8081 using a regular browser. Using the appropriate buttons, you also can read and copy the current content of the device's clipboard as well as write text snippets into it.

Transfer Files with Ghost Commander

To transfer an occasional file or document between an Android device and a Linux machine, you might opt for the Ghost Commander file manager app [8]. If you are familiar with two-pane managers, you'll feel at home with Ghost Commander (Figure 8). Its interface makes it supremely easy to work with files, and numeric shortcuts allow you to perform common operations with a single key press. Ghost Commander provides access to local and removable storage right out of the box.

Figure 8: Ghost Commander is a capable file manager for Android.

More importantly, the app also supports the FTP protocol, so the file manager can act as an FTP client. Using the SMB [9] and SFTP [10] plugins, you also can add support for SMB and SFTP protocols. This way you can move files between your Android device and Windows and Linux machines. To speed up access to oft-used directories and remote hosts, you can mark them as favorites. Ghost Commander comes into its own on Android-based tablets, where the two-pane interface works particularly well. Additionally, if you use your Android device with a keyboard, then Ghost Commander's numeric shortcuts come in particularly handy.

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