[beagleboard] latest (Angstrom-Cloud9-IDE-GNOME-eglibc-ipk-v2012.12-beaglebone...) refuses ssh login.

invoking ssh yields:

ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

ssh with "-v" yields:

OpenSSH_6.1p1 Debian-4, OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to beaglebone.local [169.254.251.18] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/jbl/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

Can I modify something in the rootfs archive from the build directory and correct this?

Maybe alter in /etc/ssh/sshd_config something like:

PermitEmptyPasswords yes
PasswordAuthentication yes
PermitRootLogin yes

then:

systemctl restart sshd.service

This is really opening up the door. IMHO it would be better to install a public key.

HTH,

Dave.