Nothing at all on the internet could help me solve this. In the end what worked was to take these steps:

1 - Resetting the root password from the Digital Ocean website

2 - logging-in using the console in the Digital Ocean website (it will prompt you to choose a different pass)

3 - edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and changing the line PasswordAuthentication no to PasswordAuthentication yes

4 - service ssh reload

5 - Then I could login from my terminal using ssh root@ipaddress and inserting the password

This was driving me nuts! NUTS! But this should help you…

BEFORE you try to SSH into server type into Command Line:

eval ssh-agent -s
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa where id_rsa is the file with your ssh key (this is the default version so chances are yours is the same. If not, change it.
ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx and hopefully no password required Needed them to log on. (From Tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-connect-to-your-droplet-with-ssh)

I faced the same problem when I used only
ssh root@server_ip

then I solved the problem by the using in the following format:

ssh -o “IdentitiesOnly yes” -i ~/.ssh/yourprivate_id root@server-ip

@clivestrydom
You are a f*cking life saver! I’ve always had this stupid problem with new Droplets and Preconfigured SSH always given me “Permission denied”. I can’t believe why DO doesn’t mention this configuration for specific named keys.

I’ve found that using the web console and pressing # on my keyboard actually inputs a 3!

This caused me all sorts of headaches as my password contained a # and I couldn’t do much out of the web console because it threw login errors.

PuTTY works a treat if you need hashtags!

Wordpress on 14.04

DSA keys are not accepted by default anymore on newest Ubuntus. This might be your case. If you have id_dsa keys, you need to replace them by RSA keys. Ubuntu 16.04 uses OpenSSH 7.x, which does not allow these DSA keys due to their security issues. This issue almost drove me crazy, because I had not experienced any issues before when connecting to my droplets with ssh.

See:

• http://superuser.com/questions/1016989/ssh-dsa-keys-no-longer-work-for-password-less-authentication
• https://blackbricksoftware.com/bit-on-bytes/139-dsa-keys-in-openssh-v7-ubuntu-16-04
• https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2015-08-13-openssh-weak-keys.html

I had trouble with this for almost 2 hours. And the I stumbled across this:
http://webdesignforidiots.net/2016/02/digital-ocean-public-key-access-denied-on-existing-droplet/

Worked like a charm.

An easy way to ensure you can connect with public/private ssh keys when first deploying a droplet is by using an ssh config file. If you’re on a Mac, create your config file inside your ~/.ssh directory, then fill in the blanks (CAPS), below:

Host ACONNECTIONNAMEOFYOUR_CHOICE
Hostname YOUR.SERVER.IP.ADDRESS
Port 22
user root
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/PRIVATEKEY

Then in your CLI simply type in:

ssh ACONNECTIONNAMEOFYOUR_CHOICE

and you should connect. Obviously if your private key has a password on it, you’ll need to enter that password when prompted.

Hope this helps someone out there!

This worked for me:

chmod go-w ~/
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

https://www.howtogeek.com/168156/fixing-authentication-refused-bad-ownership-or-modes-for-directory/

I have had this problem with OSX, this is how I fix it.

prerequisite: you have created a rsa file and added it to the droplet.

Tip: Using finder you can hold shift command . to see hidden files. Your .ssh folder will be located at HD>Users>username>~/.ssh

1. Check that you have the key there or in a subfolder

2. Check that you have a config file - if not - create one - from terminal nano ~/.ssh/config or open from Finder with TextEdit, sublime, etc…

3. Edit your ~/.ssh/config file as follows:

Host some_droplet 
 HostName 8.8.8.8
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_file
 User root
 AddKeysToAgent yes
 UseKeychain yes

Notes: “Host” can be any name you want for when you login from terminal. “HostName” should be your droplets IP address. “IdentityFile” should be the file location of your Key. “User” should be root for the first time.

Tip: you can repeat the above block of code for every droplet you have, where each block needs a separate “Host” name. They can all share the same “IdentityFile” (easy way) or you can generate new keys each time.

1. Extra step: After you login create a new user - replace newuser below with the user name you choose. “` ssh some_droplet adduser newuser #Create privileged user usermod -aG sudo newuser #Add User to Admin group rsync –archive –chown=newuser:newuser ~/.ssh /home/newuser #Copy /.ssh directory to new user for RSA keys exit

nano ~/.ssh/config #local machine

change User from root to newuser

ssh somedroplet #login as newuser
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorizedkeys #change file permissions

Disable ssh root login and go about your business.