Mova P10 Ultra does not accept new ssh key

[94ritkan]

Are you already using Valetudo?

Yes, just started

Your questions

A few days ago my Mova disappeared from my network and I was unable to find it again. I ended up performing a factory reset and was able to successfully root the bot again but now I'm getting stuck when I try to SSH in. I keep hitting a wall and being requested to provide a password.

The troubleshooting I've tried leads me to believe that perhaps I should be using the same keys from the first time I rooted the bot? Which if that's the case then past me royally fcked current me bc I cannot for the life of me find the USB that had the backup.

So I'm curious, has anyone encountered this before? Have I locked myself out of the bot?

I am new to this but really trying to learn and grow here so thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[Hypfer]

Yes, this is a footgun of the not-quite-ideal implementation of ssh keys we built back when initially testing + to allow adding new keys without reflashing

There are actually three locations where the authorized_keys file is stored

1. /authorized_keys - which is part of the rootfs and thus gets flashed, but also is read only
2. /mnt/misc/authorized_keys - which is not being flashed, but r/w and persistent
3. /tmp/.ssh/authorized_keys - which is the HOME dir where dropbear expects the keyfile + is als a tmpfs

On boot, If 2 is empty, 1 is being copied to 2. After that, 2 is being copied to 3.
So if you want changes to persist, you need to modify 2.

There is no special logic in place that would add new keys from 1 to 2, so because 2 exists, the now-different 1 from your new firmware image is never being copied to 2.

So yes, use the old key, delete /mnt/misc/authorized_keys and reboot. Then you can use the new one.
If you do not have that anymore and didn't disable it, you can also login using the password that can be derived from the SN of the bot. Check the dreame UART rooting instructions on valetudo.cloud for that calculation.

Additionally, there is also a passwordless rootshell on the UART as another way in.

[94ritkan]

I did end up having an issue with Mova getting stuck on localhost after installing Valetudo. Eventually I figured out to remove the config file and start it up again.

Thank you for your help! This was a tough one but I learned a lot. (oh and I'm saving the backup.tar in a few places this time)