the issue is within : sshd_config file

here is the ULTIMATE solution:

1. Log as as a root to you Ubuntu server
2. vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Now go to very bottom:
And change the value from "no" to "yes".

It should look like this:

PasswordAuthentication yes

1. service sshd reload

to take effect.

Now you can simply a key using following command from your LOCAL machine (aka laptop etc)

So Open new terminal window and do NOT log into server, simply put this command:

ssh-copy-id john@serverIPAddress

(Replace john with your username).

you should be go to go

@animesh

When you create a user using useradd, you'll need to specify their home directory or use usermod to change it (as would be the case if the user already exists).

What I normally do is create the directories first:

mkdir -p /home/myuser/.ssh

Create the authorized_keys file:

touch /home/myuser/.ssh/authorized_keys

Then add the user:

useradd -d /home/myuser myuser

Set proper permissions:

chmod 700 /home/myuser/.ssh

chmod 644 /home/myuser/.ssh/authorized_keys

Set ownership:

chown -R myuser:myuser /home/myuser/*

Once that's done, you should be able to login with myuser.

If you already have a user:

usermod -d /home/myuser myuser

and then continue with the above.

Easy way:

1. Connect to VNC (droplets>your droplet>Access>button "Launch Console")
2. Authenticate with your login and pass
3. Open ssh config (vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config)
4. Insert this string "PasswordAuthentication yes "
5. Save config
6. Reboot ssh (service ssh restart)
7. Try connect from your local machine
8. Optionally add ssh-keys

Profit!

@jtittle
I have done all the above steps in my local machine and I still get the same error.

Permission denied (publickey)

Should this be done in my DO instance? If so, I remember seeing a authorized_keys file in the .ssh folder with some contents already presumably from the first time setup.

Should I append my publickey onto the authorized_keys file in the DO instance?

Hi @zaneakarl

I couldn't get into it.

Then I tried opening the web console from digitalocean dashboard and pasting it there. The problem was that it is not possible to paste text onto the web console.

Luckily for me, I was able to copy the key from my another computer (mouse/keyboard connected via synergy) and paste it into a file tmp and the did:

cat tmp >> .ssh/authorized_keys

Immediately I was able to log into the droplet.

Now, thinking back I don't really remember how I was able to paste the key into the tmp file in the first place. I checked the command history and am not able to find how I did it. Sorry.

If I find it, I will update it here.

I do something similar.

curl http://www.domain.com/file_path/id_rsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys

From your local machine, run the ssh command: ssh root@your-droplet-ip

I've wasted time on this issue on three seperate occasions. I am about 20 minutes away from leaving DigitalOcean for good.

1) If web UI console is going to be the only reliable way to boot into a box after password reset, add paste functionality.
2) I can't put my finger on it, but I believe the web UI pw reset breaks more things then it fixes, ssh with a key is a struggle to get working

Ahh I'm switching now.

Hi, just solve this issue with the same method above.
1) open with web UI console
2) wget https://xxxxxxx
3) cat idrsa.pub > .ssh/authorizedkeys

There seems to be some problem with the setup of Droplet.
The .ssh/authorizedkeys wasn't correct originally.
The "vim -d idrsa.pub .ssh/authorized_keys" said they are different.
then do the third command.
and everything works.

hope this helps.

For others in future, if nothing above works, another way to try:

1. Have existing user, preferably root, create a file 'authorized_keys' on local machine, and copy the Public Key (.pub) of the new user into it in a text editor.

2. If root, then modify and run this command:
   scp -i /home/MYUSER/.ssh/id_rsa /home/MYUSER/Documents/authorized_keys root@123.123.123.123:/home/NEWUSER/.ssh/authorized_keys

3. Of course, make sure that all the permissions and directories are properly created with proper permissions, etc., etc.,

One helpful tip with any SSH logins is to include -vT in the command, this will show you the entire connection/negotiating process and many times will point out issues. An example:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa -vT root@123.321.123.321

Try running ssh-add on your client machine.

When I write chown -R myuser:myuser /home/myuser/* to command line
I get a warning below.
chown: cannot access '/home/myuser/*': No such file or directory

Thank you

FWIW. In my case the error "Permission denied (publickey)." was caused by non-existent shell in the /etc/passwd for the particular user (/usr/local/bin/bash in FreeBSD and bash was not installed). When I changed the shell to /bin/sh (chsh -s /bin/sh user) I was able to ssh to this account. HTH.

Easiest solution is provided by @intalix .
I tried to copy paste through the web console but the text encoding was totally messed up.
Also on a user point of view, I thought that adding my ssh key into my account security settings was enough to add it to the authorized list. But it doesnt.

Try:
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/xxidrsa

It should work

I had the same issue and fixed it by updating the SSH config file on my local machine.

First:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Then add these lines:

Host [your droplet ip]
  UseKeychain yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/[your private key file]

That's it.

I've been using various distros of Linux since the mid-90's. (Just saying, I'm not a complete rookie with config and security, etc..) But I have spent HOURS (5 or 6) on this "Permission denied (public key)" issue with DigitalOcean and have not found the magic solution. I am giving up, deleting the two droplets I had, and moving on to a different host (I'll see about Rackspace). I've had web sites (with databases, etc.) up on AWS for years, and I was just looking around at possible alternatives. DO isn't one of them, I'm very sorry to say.

To me, works changing (Ubuntu 18.04):

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PermitRootLogin prohibit-password to PermitRootLogin yes 
PasswordAuthentication no to PasswordAuthentication yes

then, restart ssh service:

sudo service ssh restart

Thanks!