1.2 Create a ssh key (with no password) for vera and add it to linux box root's authorized key list file.
Sounds easy (not) but... What do I do after the key is added 
The steps below only allow you to send commands via SSH. This doesn't give you sudo access (unless you do it at the root user, which I wouldn't recommend. Also, I tested these with my Vera and a Mac, running 10.8.
1) Generate SSH key
dropbearkey -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_dss
2) View SSH public key
dropbearkey -y -f ~/.ssh/id_dss
3) Copy the following from the above to a new line in " ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2" on your Linux box (should be one long line, similar to below, but the "...xxx..." is seemingly random characters):
ssh-rsa Axxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxE= root@MiOS_12345678
NOTE: the "...xxxx...." is your key...do NOT share that!! Well, it is your public key, but I still wouldn't do posting it around the forum, in case you mistakenly grab your private key.
4) Now test that you can SSH from Vera to your Linux box.
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_dss -l <USER> <HOST>
Note: You'll need to say "y" to accept the remote box key fingerprint.
5) Now you can send a command via SSH from Vera (change the path/filename):
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_dss -l <USER> <HOST> 'touch /path/to/dir/touchTest.txt'
6) You should a new (empty) file created with the "touch" command at the location specified.
Once I do this, I can send a "sleep" command to my Mac OS X box. That doesn't require sudo, so I don't have any issues with privilege escalation. I would use the command:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_dss -l <USER> <HOST> 'pmset sleepnow'