Announcing the Secure Shell "dev channel", and SecureShell-dev-0.8.0.2

Robert Ginda

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May 10, 2012, 7:58:25 PM5/10/12

to chromium-hterm

Hi folks,

I'm happy to announce that Secure Shell now comes in a "dev" flavor. If you want to try out the latest fixes or features, and don't mind a bit of a rough ride at times, then this is for you.

The setup is a little different from Chrome's notion of channels. With Secure Shell, we actually have two apps in the store. You can install both at the same time, and even *use* them both at the same time.

In order to get access to the dev version, you must be a member of the chromium-hterm mailing list (which you are, if you're getting this mail). After that, it's as easy as installing "Secure Shell (dev)" from <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/okddffdblfhhnmhodogpojmfkjmhinfp>. You won't be able to find the app in the web store search (even if you're a member of chromium-hterm), so keep the direct link handy. If you're not a member of this list, the link will display something like "The item could not be found. The owner may have removed it."

You'll notice that the dev version has a completely different icon and slightly different name, in order to make it easy to distinguish from the stable (aka, Beta) version.

Keep in mind that if you have a Chromebook and you install the dev version, then that's what you'll get when you press Ctrl-Alt-T. If it stops working you can revert back to stable by disabling (or uninstalling) the dev version.

Now, about SecureShell-dev-0.8.0.2...

* It's got (preliminary) support for key-based authentication! It needs a lot of polish, but it'll get you logged in.

* It's also got a number of terminal correctness fixes, including the "missing lines at the bottom of the terminal" issue, and "terminal sometimes hangs when printing binary data".

The full change log is available as part of the changelist: https://gerrit.chromium.org/gerrit/22418 (and once that CL lands, http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromiumos/platform/assets.git;a=blob;f=chromeapps/hterm/doc/changelog-dev.txt)

The public key support is described in the FAQ: http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromiumos/platform/assets.git;a=blob;f=chromeapps/hterm/doc/faq.txt

Rob.