BirdNetPi2pd

This is a guide on how to set up your Raspberry Pi so you can access it without knowing its IP. I’m going to be running BirdNET Pi on mine, so that’s the setup example I’ll use, but all the I2P configuration should work generally.

For initial setup, you can find all the helpful information over on https://github.com/Nachtzuster/BirdNET-Pi.

Installation of i2p

Once you have Raspberry Pi OS Lite installed, you only need to run a few more commands.

# if you're running BirdNET Pi run this, otherwise skip
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi/main/newinstaller.sh | bash
# It will update and reboot for you, so you can skip the next step if you install BirdNET Pi
sudo sh -c 'apt update && apt upgrade'
# This will take at least a few minutes either way, so sit tight or grab a snack
sudo apt install i2pd

Configuration

With everything necessary for this installed, you only have to edit a few text files next.

Raspberry Pi

You’ll want to add this to /etc/i2pd/tunnels.conf

[SSH-SERVER]
# basic server settings
type = server
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 22 # forward connections to SSH port
keys = ssh-in.dat
signaturetype = 11
i2cp.leaseSetType = 5
# change these lines
# inport is the port i2pd will listen on, can be anything
inport = 7722
# base64 encoding of the private key you want to use, see the manpage base64(1) for help
i2cp.leaseSetPrivKey = cHJpdmF0ZSBrZXkgZXhhbXBsZQo=

Once that’s set up, start i2pd with the command

sudo systemctl enable i2pd --now

Main Computer

i2pd

With i2pd installed on your main system, update the tunnels.conf configuration with

[ssh-birdnet]
type = client
host = 127.0.0.1
i2cp.dontPublishLeaseSet = true
keys = ssh-raspi.dat
# change these lines
port = 7622 # the port you'll ssh to on your system, remember for later
# the base64 of the same password you decided on earlier
i2cp.leaseSetPrivKey = cHJpdmF0ZSBrZXkgZXhhbXBsZQo=
# destination is a bit more complex to find, see instructions below
destination = 7fa6d224b09c37e16be0213a7f1c5d2f4b58feff2d72bfb3059a056b.b32.i2p

To find the destination address, you must do this. Connect, in a web browser, to your Raspberry Pi on port 7070. For example, if your Pi’s IP address is 10.0.0.2 on your home network, you’d connect to http://10.0.0.2:7070 in your preferred web browser.

From there:

1. click on I2P Tunnels on the left side of the screen
2. click on SSH-SERVER in the tunnel list, under the Server Tunnels section
3. underneath the Base64 section, click on Encrypted B33 address:
4. The address that is displayed is the one you want to insert into your configuration file
5. Copy & paste the address into the destination = section of the configuration

Finally, restart i2pd on your computer.

ssh

Now, to ssh in over i2pd, you only need one command

# This is where you need to remember the port you configured earlier, and relpace 7622 with it
ssh [email protected] -p 7622

Instead of running this, however, I suggest setting up an ssh key and ~~/.ssh/config~. To set up an ssh-key, you only need to run a few commands

ssh-keygen
# this will prompt you to enter a file and passphrase. Remember both!
# you need the path to your key for the next command, and the passpharse to use it
ssh-copy-id -i /path/to/key -p 7622 [email protected]

Then, edit ~~/.ssh/config~ and add the following section:

host raspberrypi2pd
     HostName 127.0.0.1
     PreferredAuthentications publickey
     # change these lines
     Port 7622 # whichever port you selected earlier
     IdentityFile /path/to/key # the key you just generated
     User piuser # your username on the raspberry pi

Now you should be able to ssh into your Pi with just this, much simpler, command

ssh raspberrypi2pd