Annoying problem with ssh keys

[Kennneth P. Turvey]

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:01:22 +1200, Tim wrote:

> On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 00:55 +0000, Kennneth P. Turvey wrote:
>> Everytime I need to use ssh I get a dialog to enter the passphrase for
>> the key.  It doesn't work.  If I cancel it three times I get a prompt
>> on the command line and the same passphrase works.  Of course it isn't
>> cached anywhere, so the next time I need to use it I have to go through
>> the same procedure again.
>> 
>> How do I get ssh to behave?
> I can't explain the issue with the dialog box (possibly a bug in
> ssh-askass-gnome?), but there is a solution that only requires you to
> suply the pass phrase once per X login.
> 
> It is likely that you have ssh-agent running.  You can check that from a
> terminal session with the command
> 	env | grep SSH
> which will produce a line like
> 	SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/keyring-n2UEyi/ssh
> or
> 	SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-THqzVF9262/agent.9262
> 
> (I have seahorse installed and that uses the first form, while the
> standard ssh agent uses the second form, which incorporates the PID of
> the initial agent process in the file and directory name.)  Note that
> the directory (and file, for ssh-agent) has a dynamic part, which will
> change each time that you log in to X.
> 
> In that case, you can load your key into the agent, with
> 	ssh-add
> 
> That will load the standard keys into the agent:
> 	~/.ssh/identity	(SSH1, RSA)
> 	~/.ssh/id_dsa   (SSH2, DSA)
> 	~/.ssh/id_rsa   (SSH2, RSA)
> after it gets the pass phrase for each key. Note that if you have two
> keys with the same pass phrase, then they will both be loaded
> successfully, but ssh-add will only ask once for the phrase.
> 
> After that, any ssh clients started from your X session will be able to
> ask the agent to perform required operations using your keys, without
> needing you to supply the pass-phrase.  You can check that the expected
> keys are loaded with
> 	ssh-add -l
> 
> 
> Tim

That does solve the problem of re-entering my passphrase, but I still 
have to cancel the three dialogs before everything works.  

A bug in gnome-askpass?  Maybe I'll sit down and see if I can figure out 
what is going on when I get a chance.  I'll at least make sure I file a 
bug report if it doesn't exist. 

Thanks. 


-- 
Kenneth P. Turvey <kt-usenet at squeakydolphin.com>
http://www.electricsenator.net

  Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is
  the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
        -- William Pitt