easy ssh question

Hi there,

This usually hapens when you don’t have a default SSH key. So when you specify the path to the key file with ssh -i, it bypasses this issue by directly using the correct key.

To make ssh root@xxx.xxx.xx.xxx work without specifying the key each time, you can move your SSH key file to ~/.ssh/id_rsa so that all SSH connections will default to that specific SSH key file.

Or alternatively, you can configure your SSH client to automatically use the correct key file depending on the SSH hostname:

1. The SSH client looks for configuration settings in a file named config in the .ssh directory of your user’s home folder. You can create or modify this file to specify which identity file to use for each host.

2. Open your terminal and run the following command to edit or create the SSH configuration file:

   nano ~/.ssh/config
   

   • Add the following configuration:

     Host xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
         HostName xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
         User root
         IdentityFile ~/.ssh/your_private_key
         IdentitiesOnly yes
     

     Replace xxx.xxx.xx.xxx with your Droplet’s IP address and ~/.ssh/your_private_key with the path to your private SSH key that you successfully use with ssh -i.

3. After adding the necessary configuration, save the file and exit the editor. If you are using nano, you can do this by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y to confirm the changes, and Enter to exit.

4. It’s important to set the correct permissions for the SSH config file to ensure that it is not accessible by other users on your system:

   chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
   

Finally, you can try connecting again using:

ssh root@xxx.xxx.xx.xxx

If everything is configured correctly, SSH should now automatically use the specified private key, and you should not see the identity error anymore.

Let me know how it goes!

Best,

Bobby

Heya, @fingers

As Bobby mentioned, this will happen when there is no default ssh-key, you can move your key to the .ssh directory and the error should be resolved.

You can also create new ssh-key pair and then upload the key to the droplet as well.

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/add-ssh-keys/

Regards

Heya @fingers,

If you check the error you are receiving, you’ll see without using -i SSH is trying to get the following ssh key no such identity: .\\.ssh\\id_rsa: No such file or directory.

WHen you give -i, what path you give for SSH to work?

Also, you can set that path in your SSH config. The config is located in ~/.ssh/config.

You can set the following so that it automatically uses the custom path you have for your sshkey

Host xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
    HostName xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.path/to/your_private_key
    IdentitiesOnly yes