Raspberry Pi Connect Gets an SSH-Like Remote Console, Expands Support to All Models
Older devices can now enjoy a secure remote shell session, even on the 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS.
Raspberry Pi has announced a major update to Raspberry Pi Connect, its in-house browser-based remote access solution — adding support for 32-bit operating systems and older hardware, along with a Secure Shell (SSH)-style console interface.
"The new remote shell feature in Raspberry Pi Connect enables you to launch a shell on your Raspberry Pi device from a web browser, over a secure connection," writes Raspberry Pi's Chris Lowder.
"This provides access to your Raspberry Pi without a desktop environment, extending support to older devices as well as devices running Raspberry Pi OS Lite. Remote shell access also works much better over low-bandwidth connections than screen sharing, making it a handy option to have."
The first public version of Raspberry Pi Connect launched back in May, offering an alternative to third-party remote access solutions or the risks and complexities of forwarding ports from the public internet to your private device. At the time, it only offered a mirroring of the device's desktop from hardware supporting Wayland — meaning the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5.
Today's update brings a second string to its bow: an in-browser equivalent to a Secure Shell (SSH) session, only without the need to install an SSH client. In doing so, it dramatically broadens its support: the SSH-style console access is available across all Raspberry Pi devices running Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, including the older 32-bit models — going right back to the original Raspberry Pi Model B, which launched to great fanfare 12 years ago.
"All devices get remote shell out-of-the-box, and if you use a Wayland compositor, such as Wayfire, you can also share your screen," Lowder explains of the update. "In practice, this means you can use screen sharing with Raspberry Pi 4 and later models, and remote shell with all models of Raspberry Pi, even the oldest.
"We hope this will make it a little bit easier for people to keep older Raspberry Pis in service doing useful stuff. Plenty of remote headless applications, for example, don’t need the performance of Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, but still benefit from straightforward remote access."
Documentation on using Raspberry Pi connect is available on the company's website.