Question

6

Can't connect to a remote server with Nautilus and a private key

rated 0 times [ 6] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 6779 / 2 Years ago, thu, september 8, 2022, 11:44:23

The remote server requires a private key and passphrase for authentication. I'm trying to connect to the server as root (on that server) from Nautilus running on behalf of my non-root account on my local Ubuntu desktop. The private key that is needed for authentication is not located in ~/.ssh (I've already got other keys there) but I have it in another directory.

In addition to the obvious approach, I tried putting root@server in the "Server" field and leaving "User name" and "Password" fields blank, putting the passphrase in the "Password" field, but it still says "Permission denied" and it doesn't ask for the private key at any point.

I also tried ssh-add path/to/privatekey, but it says "Could not open a connection to your authentication agent.", however I'm not sure if ssh-add is even relevant here.

I can ssh into the server from the terminal just fine with

ssh -i <...>/id_rsa root@server

and answering the passphrase question that follows.

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answered 2 Years ago assionortly · Accepted Answer

I don't see why key selection dialogue should appear at all. It's up to the server to offer authentication methods it's willing to accept and up to the client to provide the credentials.

One of the most common methods for providing those details is using the ssh-agent which you don't appear to be running. This is a little snippet I've put in my ~/.profile to make sure my ssh-agent is always running:

run_ssh_agent() {

  ssh-agent | grep -vi 'agent pid' > ~/.ssh-agent

  . ~/.ssh-agent

}



if [[ -f ~/.ssh-agent ]]; then

  . ~/.ssh-agent

  if [[ -n ${SSH_AGENT_PID} ]]; then

    if ! ps -p ${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep 'ssh-agent' &>/dev/null; then

      run_ssh_agent

    fi

  fi

else

  run_ssh_agent

fi

Put the code there, log out of your X session, log back in, open a terminal and add your key to your agent:

ssh-add /path/to/your/private_key

Verify that it's added by running ssh-add -l and connect to the server using Nautilus without providing the password.