Unable to SSH to the Droplet; Forced to use the access console

Question

If I try to connect using SSH client to my droplet, I get the following message.

**‘Permission Denied (Public Key)’ **

I have been relying on Access Console option in the Web console to access my droplet and push my updates. I would like to SSH to my Droplet. I have been able to do the same with my other accounts.

jarland · Answer

Greetings! I don’t blame you, the web console is really best saved for emergency situations. SSH will likely always be the more friendly protocol for this. The simple version of the error is this:Password login is disabled, and your SSH client is not loading a private key that has been accepted by the server for login. If you created your droplet with an SSH key but do not use that key, we disabled password login for you. Otherwise, it’s still disabled, just not sure who did it :) You’ll want to edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config over the web console, and look for things like this: PermitRootLogin no PasswordAuthentication no It could be any combination of that, but you want both of them to be set to “yes” instead. When finished, restart SSH: Debian / Ubuntu: systemctl restart ssh CentOS / Fedora: systemctl restart sshd Now you should be able to log in using your password. Keep it secure. There’s an xkcd for that:https://xkcd.com/936/ Jarland

alexdo · Answer

Hello there, You can check our article on How to Upload an SSH Public Key to an Existing Droplet https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/how-to/add-ssh-keys/to-existing-droplet/ You can access the droplet from the DigitalOcean console and then temporary enable the PasswordAuthentication on your droplet and access the droplet with a password to upload the ssh-key. If you haven’t created new pair of keys you’ll need to do that first. You can enable PasswordAuthentication for your Droplet by modifying your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. Once set to Yes restart the SSH service and connect via an SSH client for a more stable connection. You can then modify your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file to add the appropriate public key. This change can be made from the DigitalOcean’s console. If you’re having issues accessing the console you can then reach to our amazing support team that can help you further with this. To enable the PasswordAuthentication follow these steps: Login to the console on the DigitalOcean website. Type sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Change PasswordAuthentication from “no ” to “yes ” and save the file Open a terminal on your computer and type ssh username@[hostname or IP address] or if on a Windows box use PuTTY for password login making sure authentication parameters aren’t pointing to a private key Login with a password Type sudo nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys Paste public key text here and save the file Type sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Change PasswordAuthentication from “yes ” to “no” and save the file Log out and attempt to log back in (if using PuTTY make sure you set up auth parameters to point to your private key) You can then upload the key using this command: ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/mykey user@droplet Hope that this helps!Regards,Alex

Become a contributor for community

DigitalOcean Documentation

Resources for startups and AI-native businesses

The developer cloud

Start building today

Report this

Unable to SSH to the Droplet; Forced to use the access console

Related questions

How to tell if Docker Compose is recreating containers for no reason, and whether 5.5 actually fixes it

How should I deploy a browser-based Instagram media downloader on DigitalOcean?

Is it safe to run production apps on a single DigitalOcean Droplet?

403 Forbidden on DigitalOcean App Platform with FastAPI Backend & Streamlit Frontend

I'm getting this ERROR: you dont' have permission to complete this action

App.yaml file is not detected in the root or .do directory

ReferenceError: module is not defined in ES module scope

npm run build/vite build time out killed

Droplet's Nginx Reverse Proxy Fails with 502 Bad Gateway Only After Deploy Any Thoughts?

Cannot deploy from private github repo

Django/Nginx/Gunicorn "unknown errors" in nginx logs

How to deploy a responsive web design project on a VPS using Git?

Report this

Unable to SSH to the Droplet; Forced to use the access console

Related questions

How to tell if Docker Compose is recreating containers for no reason, and whether 5.5 actually fixes it

How should I deploy a browser-based Instagram media downloader on DigitalOcean?

Is it safe to run production apps on a single DigitalOcean Droplet?

403 Forbidden on DigitalOcean App Platform with FastAPI Backend & Streamlit Frontend

I'm getting this ERROR: you dont' have permission to complete this action

App.yaml file is not detected in the root or .do directory

ReferenceError: module is not defined in ES module scope

npm run build/vite build time out killed

Droplet's Nginx Reverse Proxy Fails with 502 Bad Gateway Only After Deploy Any Thoughts?

Cannot deploy from private github repo

Django/Nginx/Gunicorn "unknown errors" in nginx logs

How to deploy a responsive web design project on a VPS using Git?