SSH to your reMarkable tablet

Paper tablets by reMarkable run Linux and you are able to SSH into them.

I use this to upload custom templates and make backups of my notebooks. I’ll go into details about how to do this in future posts.

Warnings:

You are doing this at your own risk. While this has worked for me, you are assuming the responsibility, if something should go wrong with this on your tablet.

While reMarkable is required under the GPLv3 license to allow you to access your device in this fashion, this procedure is unsupported by the company. As far as I am aware, this does not void any warranties (note that I am not a lawyer). However, if you are seeking support from reMarkable, I would assume that they would want to have the device reset to a non-modified state before providing support.

Assumptions:

  • You have a basic understanding of SSH.
    • Note that you can use the root username and password, as mentioned below, or you can setup SSH keys to simplify the login process. I will not go into detail about SSH keys.
  • While a basic understanding of Linux will help, it’s not particularly necessary, as I’ll walk through the steps that I used.

Other notes:

I have done this on a reMarkable 2 tablet, but I understand that this should work on the original reMarkable, as well.

How to SSH to your reMarkable tablet

  1. Connect your reMarkable via USB to your computer.
    • I find this to be generally more reliable for these operations than accessing the reMarkable via WiFi – and you may be on a WiFi network that doesn’t allow devices to talk to each other.
  2. Find the password for your reMarkable:
    1. Tap the menu in the upper-left corner.
    2. Tap Settings.
    3. Tap Help.
    4. Tap Copyrights and licenses.
    5. Under the GPLv3 Compliance section, you’ll find the password for the device’s root account. Make a note of this.
    6. If you want to connect to your tablet over WiFi, make note of the IP address listed here, as well.
  3. SSH to your reMarkable using the root password
    • When connected via USB, the IP address of your reMarkable is 10.11.99.1. Otherwise, substitute the WiFi IP address that you noted above.
ssh root@10.11.99.1
  1. You will be prompted for the password that you noted above.

You’re now at a shell prompt on your reMarkable tablet.

Tagged: Tags

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *