No monitor: How to SSH into your Raspi

You have flashed your SD card with a new Ubuntu installation. You have connected your Raspi to an external monitor and you follow through the initial setup process, you set the timezone, the admin account, the password etc. You only have to connect your Raspi to a monitor this one time as we will now enable SSH for remote control.

Open a terminal and enter the following command:

Debian: sudo apt-get install openssh-server -y

Arch: sudo pacman -S openssh -y

On your remote machine which has to be on the same network, open a terminal and connect to your Raspi using this command, modify username with the admin-username of your Raspi and 192.168.0.5 with the true IP of your Raspi:

ssh user@192.168.0.5

You will be asked to accept the new fingerprint/certificate from this device, confirm, then enter your password. You are now able to command the Raspi via network and without a monitor. Every command you type in the terminal while you are logged in your Raspi will be executed on your Raspi as if you would type it on a keyboard that is connected to the Raspi.

If you like to go further, change the default SSH port and subsequently modify the firewall, read this blog post.