One of the things I love about the Chromebook is something the uninitiated knock, which considering what Microsoft is doing with Windows 11 is slightly ironic. As well as the great ChromeOS web-based, no-fuss interface Google has added access to Android Apps via the play store and a Debian based Linux shell.

Detractors say this is Google trying to bolt-on usefulness, which I guess with Windows Linux System and Amazon Android Apps isn’t at all what Microsoft are doing.

I spend a huge amount of time in the Linux shell in ChromeOS directly or indirectly by launching apps like VSCode or MailSpring.

Something I do a LOT is ssh onto the boxes on my home LAN, I use Termius for Linux (although i could quite easily use the Android app on the Chromebook too.

Termius – SSH platform for Mobile and Desktop

The #1 cross-platform terminal for Windows, macOS, Linus, iOS, and Android with built-in ssh client which works as your own portable server management system in any situation.

SSH platform for Mobile and Desktop

On a rare occasion I’ll ssh to something from the Linux shell in ChromeOS and I was thinking yesterday is there a bash based SSH Connection Manager

The answer to this is of course there is this is Linux.

The answer for me was nccm

GitHub – flyingrhinonz/nccm

Contribute to flyingrhinonz/nccm development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubflyingrhinonz

Install nccm

The Gitlab page covers in detail the setup and install of nccm, on my Chromebook i run the following:

• Clone the project from the git repository: git clone https://github.com/flyingrhinonz/nccm nccm.git
• cd nccm.git/nccm/
• sudo install -m 755 nccm -t /usr/local/bin/

The ssh connections/config file nccm.yml should be copied to any one of the following locations, and is loaded from the first location found in the following order:

• ~/.config/nccm/nccm.yml
• ~/.nccm.yml
• ~/nccm.yml
• /etc/nccm.yml

Then edit the nccm.yaml, it’s filled with a lot of options which I kept in place and changed the

# connections configs:mychat.lan:  address: 192.168.92.150  comment: Rocket Chat  user: davidmymedia.lan:  address: 192.168.92.248  comment: Plex  user: davidmyjumpbox.lan:  address: 192.168.92.20  comment: Jumpon point  user: david

I’ve got passwordless SSH setup on the Chromebook to the remote sites  

SSH Passwordless Login Using SSH Keygen in 5 Easy Steps

In this example we will setup SSH password-less automatic login from server 192.168.0.12 as user michele to 192.168.0.11 with user frankie.

MediumMichele Berardi

Once the nccm.yml is updated run from the command line

nccm

The ncurses interface then displays

0     mychat.lan          david@192.168.92.150     Rocket Chat1     mymedia.lan         david@192.168.92.248     Plex2     myjumpbox.lan       david@192.168.92.20      Jumpon point

Press the number of the box you want to ssh to and the connection is made.

OK, so it takes a little to set up, if you’ve to a few machines it can save some time later…

Further Chromebook Reading

https://tech.davidfield.co.uk/tag/chromeos/

https://tech.davidfield.co.uk/supercharge-your-chromebook-linux-shell/

https://tech.davidfield.co.uk/the-chromebook-linux-shell-update-3/