So you need to get that sweet new album on your device that you totally just got so you can listen to it in the car. Oh wait, you left your cable back at the office with your Touchstone. How are you going to get files to your device? Well there’s always WiFi Media Sync by 8-Bit but (due to limitations of webOS) you can only sync one file at a time, and the standalone server may not work for everyone, or some may prefer a more direct method. (Also check out Gemini File Manager)There’s a solution that actually isn’t as popular as it should be. It’s called OpenSSH. The optware tools have been in Preware for a long time, but many webOS users either haven’t heard of it, or are too nervous to venture. Fear not my friend, it’s easier than you think.

The information I use is directly from WebOS Internals’ page on OpenSSH Install. I don’t take credit for this tutorial, but I wish to spread it to more people to make their lives easier.

Step 1(Option 1): If you don’t already have Preware, follow these instructions, otherwise download and install all dependencies for OpenSSH SFTP Server and Xecutah/XTerm/XServer.WTerm/WOSQI CMD will NOT work, I’ve tested.

After finish installing, open Xecutah and start XTerm.

Please check and double check everything you type before you hit enter.

Once again, these instructions are directly from WebOS Internals’ site.

Step 2: Once it’s open, type the following things, at the end of each line you hit enter. So for example you would type cd / then hit enter.

(Keep in mind, each step is one line, Step 4 is all one line)

1. cd /
2. /opt/bin/ssh-keygen
3. Press ↵(Enter) to accept the default filename. When prompted, press ↵(Enter) twice for a blank password.
4. mv /home/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /home/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
5. cp /home/root/.ssh/id_rsa /media/internal/id_rsa 

Close XTerm

Step 3: Transfer keys to your computer
Connect your device to your computer via USB and put it in USB Drive mode (possibly for the last time!) Copy the id_rsa file from the phone to your computer’s hard drive and remember where you saved it.You can “eject” the device’s drive and unplug the USB cable.

Step 4: Configure FileZilla and connect to your phone
If you don’t already have it, download and install the FileZilla client on your computer. The reason it’s best to use FileZilla is because FileZilla automatically converts that id_rsa file into a .ppk which is a PuTTY private key file.

To add your SSH private key, Start FileZilla and under Edit > Settings > SFTP, click “Add keyfile…” and locate the id_rsa file you saved earlier
click “Yes” to convert it to a .ppk file FileZilla can use

You can give it any name and save it to a permanent location where it will be available whenever you need to connect
Time to connect. Go to File > Site Manager and create a new site with the following settings:

• Host: Your device’s local IP address over Wi-Fi (tap the name of your Wi-Fi connection for its current IP) see here
  
• Port: Leave blank
• Protocol: SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol
• Logon type: Normal
• User: root
• Password: Delete whatever is in the password field, leave blank

Click the advanced tab and set the Remote Directory to /media/internal/
Click Connect

It should work! If it does not, feel free to e-mail me. If you still do not feel comfortable doing all this, I highly recommend WiFi Media Sync.

EXAMPLE USAGE IDEAS:

• Edit a file, perhaps a stylesheet or code
• Transfer music to your device
• Essentially anything that requires you to plug in your USB cable!