[xzithlan]

Many of us have cited the lack of an ssh client to be a major stumbling block to our purchase of a Playbook. The developer of BBSSH has indicated that RIM's painfully tardy release of the Native SDK is the primary factor preventing him from porting his superb free app over to the Playbook.

Until those hurdles are overcome, there is a verified work around that I've been able to put together which gets a usable shell prompt. Generally, it involves using a BlueTooth keyboard and the SSL encryption of the PlayBook browser to tunnel a connection to your SSH server which hosts your CLI. The keyboard is the key, because for some reason the PlayBook does not recognize the command line text box that is created as input field, and thus pop up the on screen keyboard. It's a command line, do you really want to type that much on the screen?

To be effective here, you have probably built a few unix servers, know your way around a LAN, SSH, Debian package management, don't get intimidated by the command line and have a couple of hours of time to spare.

Here is what I did to avoid exposing a production system while i messed around with things:
1. Used VirtualBox, which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux to host a virtual machine, but VMWare Player or KVM would work too.

2. Using the 32 bit Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server version iso will ensure you don't need to set aside too many resources on the host.

3. Set the VM host to use a bridged connection for your VM. Remember most WiFi NICs can't be used to bridge.

4. Assign a static IP to your VM and make the changes within.

5. Install openssh-server and apache2 using apt-get on your VM.

6. Install the debian package for Shellinabox on your VM. Set shellinabox to use port 443. Make sure you enable apache mod ssl.

7. From a browser on your LAN browse to:
https://IP_ADDRESS_OF_VM
-accept the certificate, there was a self signed one created during the process of configuring ssl in apache. For an extra special bonus you could create a CSR and get it signed by a CA. To do this, Google is your Friend.

8. Forward a port through your router to the static ip of your VM. My DSL provider,Telus, blocks some of these well known server ports (BOO!). So i set a public port in the 10000 range and then forward it to private port 443.

9. Test it outside your network:
Browse to:
https://WAN_IP_ADDRESS:10000

No, you can't do a proxy through this or X forwarding, but that we'll have to wait for a native application. For now, you can carry your PlayBook on the plane instead of lugging around your laptop.

I don't have a PlayBook of my own, however this has been verified on my friend from Crackberry's device. If anyone wants to send me a PlayBook, I would not decline.