I have an Asus DSL-AC68U router. I can easily ssh to it:

ssh router

After having configured the proper options in .ssh/config:

Host router

Hostname ddnshostname

User myuser

KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

In short, I already can access the router via SSH and FTP but I'd like the security and ease of use of SSHFS (or similar!).
However, I seem not to be able to mount stuff with SSHFS:

$ sshfs -o sshfs_debug router:/tmp/home/root/ testmount/ -d         [1]

SSHFS version 2.6

FUSE library version: 2.9.5

nullpath_ok: 0

nopath: 0

utime_omit_ok: 0

executing <ssh> <-x> <-a> <-oClearAllForwardings=yes> <-2> <casatrieste> <-s> <sftp>

sh: /opt/libexec/sftp-server: not found

remote host has disconnected

I found out this is because sftp-server in my router seems to be displaced or missing. However, I cannot find neither sftp_server nor ssh_config anywhere in the router using find / | grep ssh_config.
It seems like I'm missing the sftp-server package completely. Is there any other way to allow me to use SSHFS? I can already access the router via ftp, but I'd like to mount the file system remotely.

I should probably install openssh-sftp-server. However this means I should install optware and I'd prefer to avoid that.

How can I mount SSHFS folders from this router remotely?

SSHFS is using SFTP. If the server does not support SFTP, it won't work.

You need to install the sftp-server on router and configure it if you want to use it SFTP/SSHFS. Period. What is the question?

You can use scp directly anywhere there is ssh:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_copy

There is nothing to mount. There are also tools that use scp to provide a directory-oriented view. I use WinSCP off Windows, because it understands PuTTy credentials.

I had a similar question and solved it by installing Entware:

To install Optware on your RT-AC68U in three simple steps:

• Mount the ext4 formatted disk;


• Go to router’s web interface (router.asus.com) -> USB Application and install Download Master;


• Once successfully installed, uninstall it (not disable). The Optware package will remain installed, but just the Download Master will be removed.

Uninstall the Download Master because it is incompatible with transmission for Optware, a better alternative for the torrent client.

After install Optware, install SSH server:

ipkg install openssh-sftp-server

sshfs is now possible