I have my own ssh server (on raspberry pi 5, Ubuntu Server 23) but when I try to connect from my PC using key authentication (having password disabled), I get a blank screen. A blinking cursor.

However, once I enter the command eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" and try ssh again, I successfully login after entering my passphrase. I don’t want to issue this command every time. Is that possible?

This does not occur when I have password enabled on the ssh server. Also, ideally, I want to enter my passphrase EVERYTIME I connect to my server, so ideally I don’t want it to be stored in cache or something. I want the passphrase to be a lil’ password so that other people can’t accidentally connect to my server when they use my PC.

  • @[email protected]OP
    7•4 months ago

    okay I tried that, using -i to specify private key. I get the same thing: blank / blinking cursor. When I use verbose -v flag, I see that in all cases (using -i, the config file, and originally) it ends with these two lines (after about 50 lines) :

    debug1: Offering public key: /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:j3MUkYzhTrjC6PHkIbre3O(etc) agent
debug1: Server accepts key: /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:j3MUkYzhTrjC6PHkIbre3OT(etc) agent

    where (etc) is some redacted text. It seems the server is ACCEPTING the key, which is nice. But then it’s still a blinking cursor…

    • @NeoNachtwaechter
      2•4 months ago

      It seems the server is ACCEPTING the key

      Check if it is true. In the server logs.

      • @[email protected]OP
        4•4 months ago

        I’m not sure which logs I can and should check, but when I listen to this: sudo tail -f /var/log/auth.log

        I only get this right after I ctrl+C on my blank / blinking cursor screen. (Did this 3 times in a row.)

        2024-08-14T11:35:32.874228+02:00 pidoos sshd[3957]: Connection closed by authenticating user pi MY_PUBLIC_IP port 52242 [preauth]
2024-08-14T11:35:50.168160+02:00 pidoos sshd[3975]: Connection closed by authenticating user pi MY_PUBLIC_IP port 39266 [preauth]
2024-08-14T11:35:55.236347+02:00 pidoos sshd[3987]: Connection closed by authenticating user pi MY_PUBLIC_IP port 41318 [preauth]

        Where MY_PUBLIC_IP is redacted. I’m not even sure why my public IP is showing. I connect locally. But ports are forwarded, yes.

        Using sudo journalctl -u sshd -f does not seem to output anything…

        • @gedhrel
          2•4 months ago

          That’s only part of the handshake. It’d require agent input around that point.