Add a new ssh user to a droplet

December 23, 2014 5.4k views
Agyieus
By:
Agyieus

I created a LAMP droplet on ubuntu.

I set it up so I can login on root using SSH, there is no problem there. However I've tried multiple tutorials to add a new SSH user and nothing works. I just want a simple way to add an SSH user by using the same SSH key the root user uses. Is there not a tutorial for that?

I've created a user (ftphtml), I want ALL the steps to allow that user to login using SSH, could anyone give me the instructions?

I've tried this so far:

cp /root/.ssh/authorizedkeys /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorizedkeys
nano /etc/ssh/sshdconfig
Added: AllowUsers ftphtml root
Uncommented: AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorizedkeys
service ssh restart

But when I try to login to ftphtml it gives the following error:

Server refused our key

2 comments
  • TheDemonCage January 2, 2015

    I don't know what you did but all I had to do was literally use the "adduser" command

  • Agyieus January 2, 2015

    This is using SSH, you can't just add a user and login via SSH. If it asked you your password it's not SSH.

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1 Answer
Agyieus December 23, 2014

I've fixed the issue by adding the following lines:

chmod 755 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/
chmod 644 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorized_keys

But WHY is ALL that necessary just to login using a new SSH user? Shouldn't DO droplets' default settings make it easier for us? This is the full list of instructions allow an existing user to SSH:

cp /root/.ssh/authorizedkeys /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorizedkeys
nano /etc/ssh/sshdconfig
Added: AllowUsers ftphtml root
Uncommented: AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorizedkeys
chmod 755 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/
chmod 644 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorized_keys
service ssh restart

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