Solving known_host problem on a Chromebook

Last edited Tue Aug 26 19:47:53 2014

Outdated key in .ssh/known_hosts on ChromeOS

When you set up a connection over ssh, the key of the remote host is stored in .ssh/known_hosts. When the ssh key of the host you want to connect to on a Chromebook with the stock ChromeOS is changed after the ssh client has stored the key, then the client closes the connection.

If you are running a stock ChromeOS you are without a shell. This means you can not use vi to remove the offending key from your known_host file.

However, you can use the Javascript console to solve this problem :)

Use the Javascript console to remove a line from the known_hosts file.

Open the ssh client

Right-click on the window

Choose the option to 'inspect the element'

In the new window. click on 'Console'

Enter the following line, replacing the number with the index number of the host to delete: term_.command.removeKnownHostByIndex(4)

In the example above, the line to delete was line 4, Replace the 4 with the key you have to delete. This number is mentioned in the error-message.