How to generate and install ssh keys in order to avoid being prompted for a password every time you use ssh.

The new way (simpler)¶

On the machine FROM WHICH you will connect to others:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -t rsa
# for each desired host (including localhost), do:
ssh-copy-id <username>@<host>
ssh username@host 'echo Hello'

... where username and host are the other machines you will connect to (including localhost).

The old way¶

Here is how to generate a key:

ssh-keygen

Once this is done, you need to issue the following for each host you want to avoid typing the password for:

We put a modified version of the ssh-keyinstall script in postures/trunk/scripts.

cd ~/src/postures/trunk/scripts
./ssh-keyinstall -s dummyhostname -u dummyusername
ssh -l dummyusername dummyhostname 'echo HI'

A bug under gnome¶

When using gnome, after some time the gnome-keyring-daemon makes ssh-agent crash.
So the workaround is to disable gnome-keyring ssh support.

To get a graphical prompt for you ssh keys at login (since gnome-keyring won't prompt you for them anymore), add "ssh-add l" in your Startup Applications (System>Preferences). br
Image(ssh-add.png, nolink)