[gentoo-user] ssh-agent & RSA

[Hilco Wijbenga]

Hi all,

I'm running ssh-agent so I only have to type my passphrase once. At
least that was the plan. I'm trying to use an RSA key instead of DSA.
This does not seem to please ssh-agent. It seems to just look for
id_dsa and ignore the id_rsa.

(a) If I create a DSA key then it finds that and ignores the RSA key;
(b) if I delete the DSA key so that there is only an RSA key then
ssh-agent warns about the missing id_dsa and gives up;
(c) if I give the DSA an empty passphrase then ssh-agent is happy but
still ignores the RSA key.

I can't find anything in man ssh-add or man ssh-agent about this
behaviour. The man files says it looks for both files but so far I beg
to differ. :-) There don't seem to be any config files for ssh-agent?

Other things I've tried:

1. State "explicitely" in ssh-config to only use RSA:

Host *
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    Protocol 2

Ssh-agent is not impressed. (Not too surprising as this file applies
to ssh, not ssh-agent, but it was worth a try.)

2. ssh-add -D ; ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

This is completely ignored. Ssh-agent simply behaves as in a, b, and c
(and, for a and c, puts the DSA key right back in the list).

I'm out of ideas. :-( Could anyone offer a suggestion? Does anyone
have ssh-agent working with an RSA key?

Please note that using a DSA key works. In that case ssh-agent finds
the key, asks for a passphrase and from then on I can use the key
without typing the passphrase. So I believe that I have set things up
correctly. Also note that I can use the RSA key, it's just that I have
to type the passphrase every time.

Cheers,
Hilco