Access Console kicks out with no errors!

Hi,

Here is my problem: http://imgur.com/I4lAxKU

Background:

I have a LEMP on Ubuntu 14.04 droplet that has our main website/system on it and still we are using it everyday. I have done many configurations to this droplet but the important are these:

1. The password authentication is off on the droplet and only ssh key authentication is on
2. Permit root login is off so only my second user can access with the ssh key
3. default port is not 22 and is 17
4. I think (not sure) I have also disabled the root in somewhere. I think it was like deny users root or something like that

Problem:

Hard drive failed on my laptop and I have no backups on the ssh key! So I searched online and I found that there is 2 ways. The first one is that I take a snapshot and create another droplet and access the new droplet and the only thing that happens is that the ip address will change and life is good. The second way is that I reset my root password from the control panel or if that does not work, I request for ISO recovery from the support team and try to change some settings in there and then reset the root password.

I have asked for the ISO recovery and I have accessed my data to reconfigure the sshd_config file. I have set the permit root login to yes and also I have commented out the line that sets the password authentication to no.

After changing the setting I have asked the support team to unmount the ISO recovery so that I can try from Console Access. And when I enter root for username and the new password for the password prompt, this is what happens: http://imgur.com/I4lAxKU It logs in and right after 1 second or less, it kicks me out and ask for the username and password again.

By the way the default port is still 17 and I did not change it to 22 because I don’t think that is the problem. If that was a problem, why the server is responding and on top of that why it logs me in.

Please advice.

Thanks